Bittersweet is Surviving Revenge
by mjf2468
Summary: Slade captures Felicity and does the ultimate unthinkable to her as a means of revenge against Oliver, per his warning to "corrupt those Oliver loves". Will Felicity be able to heal after being assaulted? How will it affect Oliver and Felicity's friendship/relationship? Takes place after episode 2 x 15, and AU after that.
1. Chapter 1: the beginning of revenge

Summary: Takes place after episode 2 x 15, and AU after that. Slade captures Felicity and does the unthinkable to her. How will it affect Oliver and Felicity's friendship, and can a romantic relationship still develop between them after such a thing occurs?

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Here is another plot bunny that slowly became a plot. I'm rating this 'M' for the sensitive topic, but I'm going to be very sparse on the details of certain events, because…because I don't write those kinds of scenes, but what I do describe could still be triggers. But I still wanted to write this type of story to explore the aftermath of such an event and how it affects the characters. Especially on Oliver, and yet another story how the fight between Oliver and Slade could have taken place**

 **This takes place in season 2, episode 2 x 15. AU after that.**

 ****Warning: Mentions of sexual assault, non-consensual touching and other similar trigger-producing actions mentioned throughout this chapter, and the entire story.**

It was a Tuesday. An ordinary, run-of-the-mill Tuesday. Except that a madman was supposedly running around Starling hell-bent on revenge against Oliver for something he didn't really do. Luckily, no other criminals were making their life difficult at the moment, so all of the team's attention had been directed on finding Slade.

It had been two weeks since Oliver learned Slade was alive. Two weeks of Oliver not sleeping, not eating, pushing himself and the team beyond their limits in looking for him. Tracking down possible clues, finding absolutely nothing.

Finally, today Felicity had cracked. She actually yelled at Oliver in his QC office, telling him she was taking the evening off from their "other" activities and spending some time at her home. For once, Oliver looked sheepish, and apologized for working her too hard.

"Hey Oliver, I understand. I really do. But you need a break as well, or else you'll never beat him."

Oliver was about to reply, when she saw him take a swallow, let out a breath, and say in a much softer tone than she expected, "You can't truly understand. This man…he will take away everything and everyone I love. I don't know what he has planned. I can't get a handle on what he's going to do next. I can't even get a hint as to where he's staying."

"A break will give you a rest, and some insight will undoubtedly occur." Felicity placed a hand gently on his shoulder. "Please, Oliver, take a break tonight as well. It will do you good."

He smiled at her. "I'll think about it. I promise. Maybe at least I'll make it an earlier night."

Knowing that was probably the best she could do, the most promise she'd get out of him for now, Felicity nodded, grabbed her coat and purse and left. Feeling relieved at having some time for herself, she began to sing as she drove home. Not noticing anything out of place, she got home without difficulty, unlocked her door and entered. Just as she walked to her closet to hang up her coat, she caught sight of the color of bright orange. Turning she observed a large man in a black and orange mask approaching her. Without realizing it, she felt a pinch on her neck then collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

She awoke with a terrible headache and a bad taste in her mouth. At first she had no memory of what had happened to her. Her nose itched, and as she attempted to scratch it, she realized her right arm was extended above her head. She looked, only to find it was handcuffed to her headboard. _Her_ headboard? Quickly she looked at her left hand, which was restrained in a similar way. Looking down at her feet, she realized that both her legs were extended out and bound to the footboard of her bed. In her own bedroom.

"So…you are awake then?" A deep voice tinged with an Australian accent came from the doorway to her bedroom.

She knew that voice. She recognized it as the voice which had come over the intercom the night he had invaded Oliver's home. The night Oliver's nightmare had begun. Slade. The man who struck terror into Oliver's heart. The only man who ever made Oliver so afraid he didn't know what to do, as far as she knew.

Felicity watched as the tall Australian walked slowly towards her, with a triumphant grin on his face. He had taken off the mask and armor and was wearing a solid black T-shirt and jeans which showed his huge muscles to great advantage. She swallowed hard at the terrifying image he portrayed, trying to quiet the fear that threatened to flood all of her senses. She struggled against her bonds, despite herself. She met Slade's eyes, praying her fear was not showing.

"I must apologize, my dear Felicity, for the intrusion. However, I am sure you would understand, if you knew my reasons."

"Yeah, right. I would totally disagree. How dare you be in my house?"

"I'm sure you think my crusade in bringing down the wonderful Oliver Queen is one not worthy of your approval. However, you do not know the man like I do."

"I was taught never to disagree with company, but in this case I'll make an exception, since you're here without an invitation. Oliver is worthy of my approval, support _and_ loyalty. He does not deserve your hatred or your revenge. And I don't know why you're here."

Felicity watched as the man in front of her extended himself to his full height, anger distorting his features into a frightening sight, his one eye burning with hatred. "You _don't_ know? Why, you are the most precious thing in his life. He loves you even more than his 'sacred' Laurel. I thought he'd never get over her, but I was wrong."

"You _are_ wrong. Oliver and I…we're only friends. And partners. That's all. Loving _me_ more than Laurel? That's a laugh. How wrong can you be? Besides, he's with Sara now."

"No, _you_ are wrong, my dear. I have observed the two of you together. He can't take his eyes away from you. It's as if _you_ are his light, fighting the darkness of his soul, so to speak." Slade laughed. "Even though that whore Sara is part of the reason for my being here now, Oliver doesn't love her. Not like he loves you." Another laugh. "But don't worry. I have quite a different revenge planned for Ms. Lance."

Felicity wondered what she could say to persuade this madman not to hurt her, that hurting her would be the wrong thing to do. She swallowed as he loomed over her, smiling as though he was a shark about to devour its supper.

"I don't know how Oliver has stayed away from you, but he's going to regret not tasting you after I'm finished with you. Why he was waiting to have that type of relationship with you, I don't know." Reaching slowly towards her, Slade took ahold of her ponytail and began to play with it, in the way the Count had, drawing her silken golden strands slowly through his fingers. Similar feelings of fear and disgust went through her. She attempted to avoid showing her feelings on her face, but doubted she was successful. "You are so beautiful, Felicity. Not usually Oliver's type, but I can certainly see the attraction."

Yanking her ponytail out of his grasp, Felicity attempted to show defiance and said, "Leave me alone. No matter what you do to me, it wouldn't affect Oliver. So don't use me as any silly pawn in your game of revenge. It's not going to be worth your effort."

Grabbing her chin and forcing her head up to him, he looked into her eyes. "Oh, I really do think it will be very much worth my effort. I will definitely take advantage of his feelings for you as a means to ruin him." Letting go of her chin, he caressed her right cheek, saying, "Oh, you are most delicious. Your glowing skin, your charming eyes. Such a beautiful face." Allowing his eyes to roam down her body restrained to the bed, he let out a satisfied sigh. "And your body…compact but beautiful. Luscious, even. Even though I don't usually enjoy such a thing, I think I will enjoy taking you against your will."

Suddenly Felicity had no doubt what Slade's plans were. With the mirakuru in him, she knew she couldn't fight him. Chained to her bed, she definitely had no way to stop him, even if she did have the strength.

"It will absolutely kill Oliver that I had you first," Slade said, as he ripped open her blouse and smiled lasciviously at the sight before him, her breasts shown to great advantage in a pink lace bra. He then grabbed her skirt, pushed it up to her waist and ripped her pink panties off.

A scream came out of her unwittingly and she tried to get away from him but the chains and restraints wouldn't let her. As he began to kiss her along her neck and climb on top of her, all Felicity could do was pray she'd survived the next moments. The world began to swim in front of her eyes as she watched in horror as Slade zipped down his jeans and maneuvered himself back over her. She tried to scream, but he placed a huge hand over her mouth.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Some time later, Felicity woke up, finding herself alone in her bedroom, no longer restrained to her bed. Looking down, she saw her ruined blouse, her bra torn, her skirt pulled up to her waist, leaving her lower part of her body bare, and her torn panties hanging from the footboard. Suddenly, nausea rose in her throat which she couldn't control. She reached her wastebasket in time and emptied her stomach of the remains of her lunch hours ago.

Felicity stumbled to her feet and found her way to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, she realized Slade had given her a hickey on the left side of her throat, and a black eye. "Great! How am I to explain this?" She tenderly touched her right eye, wincing from the pain.

She stumbled to the bathtub and sat on the edge, placing her head in her hands. If she didn't have the physical reminders on her body, she'd have thought of it as a dream. A nightmare. _I must have blacked out. I can't remember anything after…after Slade…_ she couldn't finish the thought.

Felicity was about to turn on the shower when the facts she had learned as a volunteer at a sexual assault center during college returned to her. _No shower, would wash away the evidence._ What she should do next came into her mind unbidden but necessary.

Stumbling out to her living room, Felicity reached for her purse on the coffee table. Taking out her phone, Felicity curled up on the couch and googled the phone number of the sexual assault center in town. Luckily, they picked up right away. Felicity explained, as she softly cried, she had just been assaulted and wondered if there were anyone available to accompany her to the hospital. She was told a volunteer would be there within a half hour. For a more effective visit, she was told to bring along the clothes she'd been wearing during the assault, if they were in no condition to be worn, not to shower, and to bring any other physical evidence, if possible, along with her. After regaining control of her emotions after hanging up, Felicity stumbled to her bedroom to change into a T-shirt and sweatpants.

The volunteer ended up being a young woman about Felicity's age, with brownish hair and a comforting smile. She introduced herself as Stacy, and asked if there was anything Felicity needed to do before they left. Shaking her head, Felicity said she was ready to go. She grabbed her purse and the bag of her clothes and followed Stacy out to her car.

Felicity knew Stacy and the staff tried to do their best, but the examination was almost as bad as the assault. Without meaning to, Felicity began to hyperventilate the moment the doctor began to examine her genitals. Stacy hurried up to the head of the exam table and led Felicity in exercises to calm her breathing. Something inside of her realized these were the exercises Diggle had taught her to handle her anxiety, and it comforted her to have something familiar to do.

Her head was all messed up as the nurse described the tests they'd run on the samples they had obtained during the exam, what they'd do with the evidence gathered, and what the pills she was handed were for. Stacy observed the blank look on Felicity's face and told her she'd explain it again to her later. Felicity nodded, barely able to restrain herself from crying once again.

When they asked if she wanted to make a report to the police, Felicity began to cry again. She had thought it over on the way to the hospital, and realized that if she made a report, it was possible Oliver or Dig would discover it, and she had decided not to tell them about it. Oliver wouldn't be able to handle such a thing happening to her by his worst enemy. It would destroy him, she had decided, and she wouldn't be able to bear that, Oliver totally destroyed because of her.

So when she was asked if she knew her attacker, Felicity answered in the negative. Part of her balked at the lie, but she kept telling herself it was for Oliver's sake that she was doing that. At least she had reached for help from the assault center, even though it almost killed her.

They gently but firmly led her through her description of the events of her attack. A little voice inside of her kept telling her it was for her own good to talk about it, but it took everything inside her not to run out of the room. Hopefully, after they captured Slade, they could use the evidence to add to his charges and send him away for a good long time. Even if her assault would be but a blip on the list of charges, she feared, after all he'd have done.

At least Felicity could understand the part where the doctor told her she didn't have any lasting damage to her reproductive organs and it didn't appear she'd have any diseases, from what she had seen initially during the exam. She was also told she needed to be tested for HIV again in two weeks, then in six months, to ensure she didn't have the disease. Felicity thanked the female doctor and nurse for their care, and allowed Stacy to lead her back to her car.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to go or anyone you wish to contact?" Stacy asked as she was driving.

Felicity shook her head and softly told her no. Stacy had warned her about isolating herself during this time, and Felicity acknowledged it half-heartedly. However, that was indeed what she was going to do while she waited for the bruises, the hickey and the black eye to fade. After they had arrived back at her house and she had walked Felicity up to her door, Stacy asked if Felicity wanted her to stay for a while. Felicity considered it for a moment, then shook her head, claiming she was tired and needed to lie down. Stacy stated understanding, but also said she would call Felicity tomorrow to check on her, and to discuss everything that happened in the doctor's office. Felicity nodded and offered her gratitude.

Stacy slowly placed a hand on Felicity's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Felicity, for calling us and for going in for an examination. I am sorry this has happened to you, but you _will_ get through this." Handing her a business card she said, "Call whenever you need to, to talk or whatever. _Any_ time."

Felicity nodded and unlocked her door, watching Stacy's car disappear around the corner. She stumbled into her house, and found her way to her couch. Searching inside her purse, she got out her phone and texted a message to Oliver saying she had the flu and wouldn't be in for work at QC or at the lair tomorrow. He texted back, saying "Sorry to hear. Let me know if u need anything. Feel better."

Looking at her phone, she realized the time was 11pm. Felicity knew she should head for bed, but as she looked at the doorway of her bedroom, all she could see and think about was Slade standing there smiling down at her. Beginning to cry, she laid down on the couch and let out all the fear, shame, and hurt she could before she fell into a restless sleep.

 **AN: A difficult chapter. I tried to display the brokenness that Felicity would undoubtedly be experiencing. But I also thought some of her strength and her will for survival would show through as well. I also wanted her to be a good role model in getting the right help right away to begin the healing process after something like this has occurred.**

 **For the record, I don't hate Felicity; she is one of my two most favorite Arrow characters. This idea had been spinning in my head ever since Slade appeared, and Felicity was shown as a possible means of revenge against Oliver. What would be the worst type of revenge Slade could inflict upon Felicity that would drive Oliver insane? I am very happy the show did not go this route, because I know it is a little stereotypical and sexist, but…the plot bunny was insistent.**

 **So I hope you found this chapter to be…well, cathartic I suppose. Since it would be weird to say 'entertaining'. And hope you will return for future chapters for more adventure, healing, surprises, revenge, and going after Slade BIG TIME! He's going to pay but it wouldn't be easy, and he wouldn't go down without a fight. See you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2: What else will Slade do?

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this. And part of this chapter takes some scenes and dialogue from Arrow episode 2 x 19 "The Man Under the Hood" written by Andrew Kreisberg, Keto Shimizu, Greg Berlanti and Geoff Johns.

 **AN: Thank you for returning to this story. A lot of angst and suffering, that's for sure. As always, thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows. Greatly appreciated!**

Previously:

 _Looking at her phone, she realized the time was 11pm. Felicity knew she should head for bed, but as she looked at the doorway of her bedroom, all she could see and think about was Slade standing there smiling down at her. Beginning to cry, she laid down on the couch and let out all the fear, shame, and hurt she could before she fell into a restless sleep._

Even though it felt as though she had hardly slept, when she finally looked at her clock alarm after waking up for what felt like the hundredth time, Felicity knew she had managed to catch a few hours of sleep, at least. Seeing it was 10am, she sighed, thankful she had at least had the foresight to text Oliver last night so she could sleep in. Looking at her phone, she wasn't surprised, however, to see three texts already from the man in question. _What can I do with that man? He certainly can't do without me, can he?_

Reading the texts, she realized that all three were questions regarding his day, intermixed with apologies for having disturbed her while she was sick. _At least he apologizes._ Unfortunately, two texts were regarding his first two meetings, and so were void. She hoped he had gotten through them okay, but she had confidence in his BS abilities, at least, if not his business sense so she was sure he'd done okay on his own. She hoped.

The third text was about Oliver's 11am meeting, so she fired off a quick text explaining her note she had left him and rolled her eyes. Oliver may be handsome and quite skilled with fighting and using a bow and arrow, but his business sense and experience occasionally left much to be desired. It often appeared to her to be one area where he wasn't as quick to pick up as other areas in his life were. Even a most talented man like Oliver wasn't all perfect, Felicity thought. He was allowed to have a few areas of weakness, she supposed.

She also received a text from Stacy encouraging Felicity to call her, or text her if she could visit Felicity. Felicity sighed, looked around her messy house, then caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. However, she knew she needed to talk in order to heal, so she texted Stacy asking if she could come by in an hour then headed for a shower.

After Stacy left after her visit, Felicity was happy she had pushed herself to talk to the young woman, even though it truly was the most difficult thing she'd ever had to do in her life. Despite the horror she'd suffered, Felicity knew the talking helped her heal a little. Stacy even encouraged her to attend daily meetings at the assault center, and she herself would attempt to visit daily as well, if Felicity wanted it.

As she settled herself on the couch, Felicity couldn't decide if she'd go tomorrow to the center. Pulling up her Netflix menu, she blindly scrolled through her choices, but she couldn't decide what she wanted to watch. The only thing going through her mind was Slade and what he did to her.

Looking at her tablet, Felicity grabbed it and pulled up Office to get to Word. She decided she needed to do what they recommended at the Center to do…journal her feelings. Felicity had never been one to really be attracted to writing her feelings down, but she decided she needed to try. Anything to get her over what Slade did. She was determined not to allow that low-life slug to have any more control over her than he did that day. Also, he didn't deserve to get any revenge over Oliver either, and every day she allowed him to influence her actions, he won another battle over Oliver. She refused to allow that to happen.

As she got into the writing, Felicity felt better and better. Even though at times she couldn't see the screen through her tears, she continued to type. After an hour, she saved her work for the last time and shut off the tablet. _Good start,_ she told herself.

Another thing the center had emphasized was receiving the proper nutrition, even if she wasn't hungry. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so she decided to fix herself a bowl of soup and salad. Deciding she needed something else to occupy her thoughts, she decided to check out the public radio station to listen to some classical music while she ate.

At the center they also talked about doing things "mindfully", in order to combat troublesome thoughts. So she purposefully sat, ate her supper slowly, taking in each bite, and listening to the music. Afterwards, as she brought her dishes to the sink, she realized she was indeed feeling a little better.

Just when she thought about going for a walk, a friend from her MIT days who living on the West Coast skyped her. Since it had been several months since they had talked, given Felicity's hectic schedule between QC and the lair, Felicity looked forward to visiting with her. After they disconnected, Felicity was happy to feel tired, so she got ready for bed. As she crawled into her bed, Felicity felt a sense of accomplishment for getting through the day. But she knew she wasn't completely healed, and she decided to take the next two days off.

Probably the only good thing about the incident was that it occurred on a Tuesday. She called in sick on Thursday and Friday to both jobs again, but texted Oliver she would come to the lair on Saturday. He agreed she should stay home and rest and "get well". Felicity grimaced at that, but did tell herself she was indeed getting "well" by her talks with Stacy and visits to the assault center.

When Saturday arrived, Felicity rolled out of bed and told herself she could do it, she could face Oliver and Dig and pretend her life hadn't changed drastically almost a week ago. Since she had slept in, she felt well-rested, and took her time with her morning hygiene. Most of the bruises were faded, the hickey almost healed, but the black eye still was apparent. However, with makeup it was hardly noticeable. She knew she could explain that away, if she had to, with her habitual clumsiness. If she had to.

When she arrived Saturday afternoon, Oliver, Dig and Sara were up in Verdant having a beer. Upon her arrival, all three gave her huge smiles.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Felicity asked, trying to be nonchalant. To her own ears it sounded a little forced, but hopefully the three wouldn't notice.

"Just having a drink in honor of you returning to work," Digg teased with a smile and a wink. "Seriously, though, we have missed you."

"Yeah, Felicity, Ollie made me work the computers because he's scared you'd get mad at him for touching them," Sara said, also with a smile and a wink.

"Hey!" Oliver protested. "I didn't say that."

"Well, you practically did."

Oliver scowled at Sara then turned to Felicity and gave her one of his 'special' smiles he reserved for her. _I wonder if he'd ever smile at me like that ever again if he ever learned the truth._ "Good to see you, Felicity." His eyes then obtained a concerned look. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, I do."

"Not to sound rushed, but let's get to work then," Oliver said, guzzling the last of his beer in the bottle. Sara and Dig also did the same.

Felicity took the lead, because she was in the front. She didn't want to, but she also didn't want to draw attention to her sudden reluctance to face the lair. Oliver followed her, with Dig and Sara behind them. Oliver said as they walked down the stairs, "We have to get ahead of this. Somehow we have to figure out Slade's next move."

"Too bad I beat you again, Kid." A vision of black and orange were in the middle of the Lair, pointing a gun at them.

Before she could react, Felicity heard bullets ricocheting around them. Suddenly she was airborne, with the next moment her feet were back on the ground, and Oliver in front of her pushing her under the stairs.

"Stay here!" Oliver told her, and then he was gone. Without conscious thought or smart thinking, she took several steps to peer out from behind the stairs and couldn't breathe. Not only was her rapist in their own Lair, he was battling Oliver with swords, while Oliver only had Sara's bo-staffs which he must have grabbed from the nearby table. She watched as the swords glittered in the half-light and the bo-staffs flew to match them. Suddenly, however, as Felicity watched with widened eyes, Slade's blade was able to find a vulnerable spot and sliced into Oliver's side. Oliver fell to the ground, with an uncharacteristic cry of pain escaping his lips. Felicity stifled a gasp as she realized Oliver wasn't moving.

Slade leaned over Oliver's still body and delivered a blow to the back of Oliver's head, apparently knocking him out. "Don't forget who taught you how to fight, kid."

Felicity frantically searched for Sara and Diggle, only to find them both bloody, bruised and unconscious. Sara was lying by the salmon ladder while Diggle appeared to have been thrown into Oliver's glass costume display case, splinters of glass covered him from head to toe.

The voice she'd been hearing every night in her nightmares called up the stairs, "Men, you can come down now!"

Felicity watched in horror as four more men, dressed similarly to Slade in black armor with black and orange masks covering their faces, marched down the steps. She remained frozen in place, under the stairs, as she watched Slade's solders approach each member of Team Arrow in pairs and dragged them to the office chairs. Slade handed them rope, and they proceeded to tie them all to the chairs, binding their wrists to the armrests, their ankles to the chair legs.

Suddenly, Felicity felt a pair of eyes on her, and without moving, she knew who was watching her. Swallowing the bile suddenly rising up her throat, she slowly lifted her head defiantly and turned to look at Slade as he was approaching her. With everything inside of her, Felicity ignored her mind's cry within her to run away from the criminal and instead stood her ground.

"Oh, my sweet Felicity, how wonderful to see you again so soon," Slade slowly purred.

Trying not to react to the cold feeling of fear snaking down her spine, Felicity continued to stare at him, refusing to rise to his bait. However, she knew her breathing was increasing, her attempts to remain calm beginning to fail as he stepped closer.

"Oh, my dear, I've been counting the hours until we were together again," Slade said as he reached out to caress her cheek.

Felicity pulled away from his reach. "What are you doing here, Slade?" meeting his steely cold gaze.

"I've missed you, my dear. Have you missed me?" the slimeball in front of her asked with a small smile playing around his lips.

Trying to ignore the bile about to fly out of her mouth, Felicity glared at him. "What do you want? Aren't you getting tired of these games?"

"Such bravado. I almost thought you'd still be hiding under your covers in your bed. What a nice bed it is. So comfortable, so perfect for such…lovemaking."

To cover the retching she wanted to do, Felicity spit at Slade's face instead. Catching her by surprise, Slade grabbed her arm and yanked her over to the others. Throwing her into the empty chair in between Oliver and Sara he asked in a tightly controlled voice. "Please place your arms on the armrests." Before she could react, Slade grabbed her left arm, tied her wrist tightly to the arm rest. By the time he was ready to tie her right wrist, Felicity had placed it on the rest. She didn't move while Slade tied it and her ankles to the chair. Straightening up, Slade wiped his hands against each other and said, "What a sight to behold. Oliver and his team tied up and at my mercy."

Oliver chose that moment to wake up. True to form, he awoke with a start, almost tipping his chair over. His memory immediately flashed, and his eyes flew around the lair, taking in the mess caused by their fight with Slade, and his comrades unconscious and bound to chairs next to him. His eyes landed on Felicity, and was immediately concerned with the fear he could see on her face.

Lips pursed, Oliver considered his enemy standing in front of him with a satisfied smile on his face. Even though he doubted it would work, Oliver still had to ask, "Slade, why don't you release everyone else? You and me, we can settle this once and for all outside. Like gentlemen, even though I seriously doubt you have the integrity worthy of one."

"Don't worry, Kid, we will fight. But only after I take care of your friends and loved ones. Remember, I said I was going to make you feel total despair. And believe me, you will."

"That so-called promise is getting old, Slade."

Slade cackled. "Not for me. I enjoy every frustration you are experiencing, Kid. And every one you will experience. Every. Single. One." Walking behind Sara, Slade placed a gag into her mouth and tied it tightly behind her. He then slapped her on both cheeks and walked away as she began to wake up. Then he walked behind Diggle and gagged him as well. Diggle was struggling to wake up, and startled in his chair as he realized they were all bound in chairs. He fought against the gag in vain, moving his head back and forth, glaring at Slade as he finished tying it.

Going behind Oliver, Slade shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kid, but it's also necessary to gag you for a short time. This next part is quite sensitive." He roughly placed the gag into Oliver's mouth, even as Oliver struggled fruitlessly. However, Slade was able to tie the gag and backhanded him for good measure. "I'd advise you to behave, Oliver. Or I will take more out of your Felicity than I already have."

Oliver's eyes widened in confusion and he looked at Felicity, who had tears silently falling down her cheeks in response to Slade's words. Oliver's eyes went from her to Slade, and back again, silently asking Felicity what Slade meant. Slade laughed. "Don't worry, Kid. You'll have an explanation soon."

Walking to Felicity's main computer, Slade slid a thumbdrive into it. "Don't worry, Felicity. I hacked into your network and made sure this will be compatible to your computer." Turning to the group, he pulled out a revolver. "Now, I hope," waving the gun at Dig and Sara, "you two are awake enough to understand this. I have a little video to show you, and this part is very important." Glancing at Felicity and giving her a small, sly smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows, he returned his attention to Dig and Sara. "Everyone's attention is to be on the monitors at all times while the tape plays. No one is to look away and no one is to close their eyes. Or I will shoot Felicity." At her gasp, Slade turned to her. "And Felicity, even though you know what's on the tape," her eyebrows arched, and more tears appeared in her eyes as she realized what he meant, "you turn away or shut your eyes I will put a bullet into Oliver. Or two. Non-life threatening, of course, but they will hurt like hell anyway."

Oliver struggled to say something through his gag, but Slade pointed the gun at him. "Now, Oliver, I will allow you some time to speak. Just not now. You understand?"

Turning back to the computer Slade hit several keys. "Now, on with the show." He leaned back against a table and began to observe the others. He caught Felicity begin to close her eyes. She jumped as Slade cocked a gun. "Now Felicity, remember what I said." Felicity swallowed and reluctantly turned her attention to the computer screen and shuttered as she immediately recognized the room on the screen to be...her bedroom. And her…on her bed….

 **AN: Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it. A more serious story of mine than I usually write, that's for sure. Any encouraging words of wisdom or happy critiques are always welcome. And please return when I post the next chapter as well. I do apologize for leaving this one on a cliff. Well, actually not. We writers just say that, ha. Seriously, though, hope you will tune in next time for the continuation of the story.**


	3. Chapter 3: Something Disturbing

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows, and for returning to this story. Now we shall see what Slade is about to do. Thanks to all the anonymous reviewers who I couldn't thank personally.**

 ****Just as a warning, this story continues to discuss and describe possible triggers of abuse and nonconsensual sexual touch.**

Previously:

 _Turning back to the computer Slade hit several keys. "Now, on with the show." He leaned back against a table and began to observe the others. He caught Felicity begin to close her eyes. She jumped as Slade cocked a gun. "Now Felicity, remember what I said." Felicity swallowed and reluctantly turned her attention to the computer screen and shuttered as she immediately recognized the room on the screen to be...her bedroom. And her…on her bed…._

Oliver watched as the camera focused on his Felicity tied spread-eagled to her bed, and heard Slade's voice say vile things to his girl. Then do vile things to her as she struggled, cried and screamed despite his hand over her mouth. He barely registered Sara's gasps and her attempts to loosen her bonds, as well as Dig's growls and his rocking his chair in his attempts to get his bonds untied. It was Felicity's quiet weeping next to him which was almost his undoing. He restrained the impulse to look at her as he continued to watch the screen despite the tears gathering in his eyes, the rage boiling in his gut, his desire to strangle the man holding them captive.

As the screen went dark with the taped Felicity's screams echoing in their heads, Slade turned the monitors off. Walking to Oliver's side Slade crouched down beside him. "See what you've been missing, Queen? She is quite tasty, your Felicity."

Oliver gathered all his strength and managed to rock his chair over, right into Slade, trying to do damage with his elbow to Slade's face. Of course, it hardly made an impression, for Slade was able to catch the chair and steady it back up. "Pretty useless attempt, Kid. Tsk, tsk." He removed Oliver's gag and asked with mock innocence, "And now, what was that you wanted to tell me?"

Oliver stared at his enemy and said in his Arrow voice, "You're dead. You hear me, Slade? Dead. If you know what's good for you…."

Slade laughed over Oliver's statement. "Really, Oliver? You think you will be able to beat me, to kill me? Remember, I taught you everything you know."

"Not everything, Slade. Not. Everything. And I will make you pay for what you did to Felicity."

"You can certainly try, Kid, but you wouldn't get too far. But don't worry, I will certainly be giving you a few more chances to try. While I continue to take away all you hold dear."

Purposely avoiding looking at Felicity, Slade walked over to Dig and Sara and removed their gags. "Some might question my judgment in inflicting such a show onto you innocent people. I simply argue with the term 'innocent'. Especially when it concerns you, Sara."

"You _are_ the most despicable man, Slade. How dare you…" Slade cut her off by grabbing her chin and pulling her head up towards him.

"How dare _I_? How dare I? You, who should be dead, wonder why I'm doing this? You're almost not worth my time, but it will add to Oliver's pain for including you in all of this."

Sara was able to get her chin out of his grasp. Looking into his eyes, she said, "How low can you go using such a wonderful woman as Felicity for revenge? How despicable to involve others in this when it's only Oliver and I you should go after."

"Like I keep saying, what fun would that be? I promised Oliver on the island that I will leave him devastated. And I will."

Rising, he yelled for his men, who had been waiting to the side of the lair, and told them it was time to leave. They formed a line and marched up the stairs and outside. He turned to the group as the door closed above them. "I must take my leave now. I hope you enjoyed my show. I know I did. Oliver, until my next bout of revenge. It'll also be a showstopper. I promise."

Approaching Felicity, he again reached out to her to run his fingers through her hair, despite Oliver's protests. "Felicity, always so cheery and hopeful, how I hate to leave you, but I must. I'm so tempted to bring Sara with me, instead, but I cannot do that either. So until I see you next," and he brought out a knife and held it up as he caressed Felicity's cheek, looking at her neck.

Diggle and Sara began to yell for him to stop, thinking he was going to slit Felicity's throat. Slade only smiled, slowly shook his head slowly, and stepped behind Felicity and cut the rope binding her hands, dropping the knife safely in her lap. He then walked up the stairs, leaving the members of Team Arrow in silence as he slammed the door behind him. They sat in shock for several minutes, unable to totally process what had just happened. The spell broke when Felicity's sobbing suddenly increased as the full horror of what had transpired occurred to her.

Oliver hated to disturb Felicity, but she was the only one whose hands were free. He'd been unable to work his bonds free, and knew neither Sara nor Dig had been either, so he attempted to draw her attention. "Felicity, please, do you think you're able to use the knife to cut me free?"

When she didn't respond, Oliver begged, "Felicity! Please, Felicity, can you look at me?" He knew she wouldn't understand unless he could bring her back to the present.

Felicity stopped her sobs and blinked her eyes several times, looking at Oliver glassy-eyed while remaining silent.

Oliver again asked her, breaking down the tasks even further. "Felicity, can you take the knife in your lap and cut the ropes at your feet?"

Felicity nodded, took the knife mechanically and bent down to cut the bonds around her ankles, being careful of her fingers. She looked at Oliver, clearly undecided what she should do next.

"Can you now cut my hands loose, Felicity?"

She stood and walked over to Oliver and was able to cut through the ropes binding his wrists. Oliver rubbed his wrists gratefully and said, "Thank you, Felicity. May I have the knife now?"

Nodding, she handed him the knife. "Can you go back and sit down, Felicity?"

Felicity, her eyes still glassy-eyed, sat down. Oliver quickly cut through the rope tying his ankles to the chair, then Sara's and Diggle's bonds. Diggle looked at Oliver. "I say we go after him, Oliver, and string him up by his b…"

Having an idea that Dig was going to say a very descriptive word Felicity didn't need to hear at this particular time, Oliver interrupted him. "I'm sure Slade is long-gone."

Sara sat down at the computer and her fingers flew across the keys. "I'm seeing if I can locate him on the traffic cams. Maybe we can see…"

Oliver was about to express doubt, but Sara looked at him, causing the words to die on his lips. Instead, Oliver went over to Felicity and knelt down beside her chair.

"Felicity?" he whispered.

She turned towards him, her face continuing to show no expression, staring unseeing at him.

"Are you all right?" he asked, hating how ineffective it sounded to his own ears.

Felicity simply looked at him, appearing not to comprehend what he was saying.

"Please, Felicity, why didn't you tell us what Slade did? We'd only would've helped you."

He watched in horror as her eyes filled with fresh tears. Her slim shoulders began to shake and her small hand covered her mouth. "Why…why did he have to do that? Why did he have to show you? I…I…how could he have taped it? I didn't know he did that…taped it while he…while…"

"I…I am so sorry, Felicity. That shouldn't have happened."

Felicity looked up, her own blue eyes wide looking in shock at the blue eyes looking back at her with shock and understanding. She suddenly became angry. "You said I'd be safe, if I stayed away from the fighting. I tried to tell you I wouldn't be, but you didn't listen."

"What?"

Felicity shook her head and said softly, "What am I saying? Even if you had taught me how to fight, I couldn't have fought him. Not with the mirakuru."

Sara rushed to Felicity's other side and knelt beside her as well. "Oh, Felicity, I wouldn't have been able to fight him off either, or stop him from assaulting me. With the mirakuru, no one could." Reaching out gently, Sara stroked her hair, asking permission silently with her eyes as she did it. "I am so very sorry that happened. It was not your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault but Slade's," looking at Oliver as she said that last sentence, as if to remind Oliver of this as well.

"Felicity, did you get checked out by a doctor, after…after it happened?" Sara asked softly.

Felicity nodded, looking down at her tightly clasped hands in her lap, then into Sara's eyes. "Will I ever be the same again?" she asked in a small voice which sounded like a timid child and not a twenty-four-year-old woman.

Dig rose and strode quickly to the other side of the lair. The sounds of punches landing on the punching bag were heard. Oliver looked over at his friend, concerned he'd hurt himself, but knew Dig needed the expression of his feelings at hearing Felicity asking such a question in such a vulnerable way.

Sara swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yes, yes you will. It will take time." After closing and opening her eyes, Sara asked, "Have you…have you talked to anyone about this?"

"I…I have been going to the sexual assault center. They…I thought they were helping….at least I thought so, until…" Felicity started crying again, "until tonight."

"When…when did it occur, Felicity?" Sara again asked softly.

"Tuesday evening. I…he…he was waiting for me when I got home early from the lair."

Oliver quietly growled in frustration, stood up, walking away from Felicity. He couldn't believe what had happened. Not only did Felicity suffer one of the worst things possible, she didn't even tell him, tell any of them. And then to experience the humiliation of watching a tape of the experience, and in front of others yet…Slade was dead. Oliver was going to gladly break his vow and kill the man who had dared to bring such unspeakable pain and horror onto the most generous, beautiful, brightest woman he'd ever known.

After taking some cleansing breaths, Oliver walked back to Felicity's side. He gently placed his hand on Felicity's shoulder. She jumped, and started crying again. "I'm so sorry, Oliver. I…I don't know why I jumped."

"No…no, don't worry about it Felicity. I…we will begin to ask before we touch you, all right? That's the only way to handle this."

Such words only made Felicity cry harder. "I…I am so sorry, Oliver…."

Oliver was able to only somewhat stifle his gasp. "Oh, Felicity, I…I am the one who's sorry…I…don't know what to say…."

Looking at him with her bright blue eyes, Felicity swallowed and asked, "Will you ever be able to look at me the same way again?"

Oliver gently reached for her hand, looking at Felicity for permission. She nodded, giving it to him. He squeezed it gently, emphasizing his words. "Oh, Felicity…I will only be able to look at you as the strongest woman I know. For having gone through something like this and survived. And facing that SOB with such courage today…I have never admired someone more."

"You also have my admiration as well, Felicity," Sara said.

"And mine," Diggle said, walking up to them. "I am so very sorry, Felicity."

With the illogic that sometimes happens in these types of situations, Felicity rose and threw herself into Diggle's arms. Ever since entering their lives, Felicity viewed John Diggle as a surrogate older brother. Feeling his strong arms around her, Felicity felt safer than she'd felt since Slade's assault. Tentative at first, Diggle's embrace tightened as the young woman in his arms cried even harder.

Oliver and Sara looked on, happy to see Felicity reaching out to one of them, even though she had refused their embraces. They waited until the storm seemed to mostly pass, and her sobs quieted down as Diggle held her, and softly stroked her bright blonde locks, rocking her gently in his arms.

When the sobs seemed to stop, Diggle gently drew away from her. "You want to sleep on my couch tonight, Felicity?"

Her lower lip trembling, Felicity nodded. Sara said, "I'll go to your house, Felicity, and grab a bag for you." Felicity nodded and gave her a little smile. "Thank you, Sara." Swallowing a sob, Felicity continued, "And thank you for your words. They mean a lot."

Oliver exchanged glances with Dig. "I think we should hold our planning session at your house. We don't know for sure whether Slade bugged the lair before we arrived."

"Yeah, and he might have used some surveillance equipment we're not able to detect, knowing Slade," Sara added. "Dig, do you think Lyla could help us with that? Perhaps have equipment that would detect the latest in surveillance equipment?"

"Hopefully, I'll check with her tomorrow."

Oliver looked at Dig and Sara. "Grab what we need, and let's get out of here." He returned his gaze to Felicity. "Do you feel able to walk out to my car?" Felicity took a deep breath and nodded. Looking at the other two, he said, "You two make sure everything else is all right, and load up what we need. Is it all right to meet you two then at Dig's?"

"Sure, Man." Dig looked at Felicity. "My guest bedroom is clean."

Felicity nodded as she followed Oliver up the stairs.

 **AN: Another chapter ended. Now the planning begins. Can the team figure out how to get Slade before he does anything else to Oliver or the rest of the team? Hope you return when I next post to find out. Always appreciate it!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Aftermath and a Respite

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while.

 **AN: Welcome back! Thank you for all the favs, follows, and reviews. It does do a writer good, and it encourages the Muse. Sorry this took a little longer than I had planned. I was sick with a bad cold. Good news…I was working on later chapters of this, so that is almost done. Well, I hope this next chapter is entertaining for you as well.**

 **Oops, I posted this already on AO3, and got a review that made me realize something. On the show, Sara and Oliver were still a couple. In this story, they aren't, but I forgot to address it. (That's the problem writing stories of different seasons; sometimes I forget those little details. Sigh). I've added something to make it clear, because there's a scene where it matters.**

 ****Warning: Mentions of rape throughout this chapter.**

Previously:

 _When the sobs seemed to stop, Diggle gently drew away from her. "You want to sleep on my couch tonight, Felicity?"_

 _Her lower lip trembling, Felicity nodded. Sara said, "I'll go to your house, Felicity, and grab a bag for you." Felicity nodded and gave her a little smile. "Thank you, Sara." Swallowing a sob, Felicity continued, "And thank you for your words. They mean a lot."_

 _Oliver exchanged glances with Dig. "I think we should hold our planning session at your house. We don't know for sure whether Slade bugged the lair before we arrived."_

 _"_ _Grab what we need, and let's get out of here."_

Oliver kept a careful eye on Felicity as she climbed the stairs and walked to his car. Luckily, for some unknown reason, Oliver had taken his car to the Lair today instead his bike. At the moment, he was very thankful. He opened the door and guided Felicity into the seat and couldn't help but notice the thankful exhale of air as she sank into the comfortable cushioned seat.

Oliver got into the car and began to drive to Diggle's place. Forcing his attention on the road, Oliver kept seeing images from the tape. Finally forcing his mind clear, he asked her, "How are you doing? You can tell me anything, you know."

He barely heard her say, "I know." At the brokenness in her voice, his heart broke as well. "I do hope you know it, Felicity. Nothing could _ever_ change the way I think of you."

"Except as a girlfriend." They looked at each other at the same time, shock in his eyes, wide-eyed disbelief in hers as she realized what she'd said out loud. Oliver pulled the car over to the curb and parked.

"Why did you say that?" Oliver asked gently.

Felicity sniffled a few times before she could answer. "I'd imagine any man would consider me ruined now." Oliver had to bend down closer to her to hear her.

Oliver changed his position to look her directly in the eye. She persisted in keeping her head lowered. Oliver asked gently, "Felicity, please look at me."

Raising her eyes, Felicity could only find understanding in Oliver's eyes. No reproach, disgust, or pity she could find in those eyes. "I wouldn't, Felicity. I would never consider any woman to be ruined after undergoing something like that. _Never_."

Tears began rolling down her cheeks again. Oliver silently asked if he could touch her, and Felicity nodded. Taking a Kleenex, Oliver wiped some of her tears away. "You will get through this, Felicity, and we will help you." Clearing his throat, he took a breath and said, "And regarding us having a romantic relationship? I've…I've been thinking…and even before this happened, how much I wish I could let you into that part of my life. I…I know I said I wasn't able to let someone into my life who I could really care about. But, you've been slowly changing my mind, Felicity. So, when you're ready to talk about it…it would make me the happiest man on the earth if you'd consider being with me. But only when you're ready to consider it."

Slowly taking a breath in and letting it out, Oliver returned his gaze to his hands gripping the steering wheel. "I only mentioned it now because of what you said. I couldn't let you think that way about yourself, when I so desperately want you in my life in that exact way." Clearing his throat and looking back at her, Oliver continued. "It's not the right time to discuss this, so I will drop it for now. But when you are ready…know that I am here. Waiting. Waiting for you."

That shocked Felicity to stop crying. "I…I thought you and Sara were… together."

Oliver turned a little pink. "Oh, well, with everything else going on, I guess you hadn't heard. Sara and I decided to end things. We're better off as friends." Clearing his throat, he added, "Sara said there was someone else I was in love with."

Felicity asked softly, "Who?"

Oliver stated, "You."

Breaking the gaze, Oliver sat up straighter and started the car once again, his eyes on the road, his face expressionless. It was quiet, but not an awkward silence. Felicity could only sit there, in silence, thinking about Oliver's words. A little part of her heart warmed up hearing it, but she quickly pushed it aside. Oliver was correct. There was so much needing to be done first. She needed to be healed, and they had to capture Slade. Then they could think about beginning a romantic relationship.

Upon reaching Dig's apartment, Felicity jumped out the moment the car stopped. Without looking at Oliver, she rushed up the stairs, staring at her feet while she waited for Oliver to join her. Oliver watched her lithe figure run up the stairs, wondering if he'd spoken at the wrong time. For once, his inner soul was screaming at him that he had done the right thing for once, communicating his feelings, declaring his love, and he decided he wasn't going to worry about it being the wrong time. Felicity needed to hear that reassurance. He was sure of it.

If he'd had a choice, of course Oliver wouldn't have chosen to reveal his feelings to Felicity in such a way. The most logical way would have been to express them and ask her on a date. And of course, she would have known Sara had basically broken up with him before he said anything, and there would have been a decent amount of time passed, so Felicity wouldn't have thought she was some kind of rebound. However, when she'd expressed such heartbreak Oliver knew he needed to make sure Felicity knew she was still desirable as a woman, to help her recover from the attack.

Oliver shook his head to stop such thoughts and he rushed to catch up with Felicity. When he reached the door, Oliver opened the security door with the extra key Dig had given him months ago and they walked into the building. Despite the early hour, hey didn't meet anyone as they boarded the elevator.

When they had reached Digs apartment, Oliver opened the door, turned on the light, and scanned the apartment before allowing Felicity to enter.

Oliver offered her something to drink or eat, but Felicity shook her head. She stumbled her way over to the couch and sat down. Oliver heard a heavy sigh escape her lips, which then trembled a little before she stopped it. He could only admire the strength she had inside of her as he watched her straighten up, and turn to look at him.

"Thank you for all you have done. I…I really appreciate it."

Oliver solemnly nodded. "Of course. Do you want to lie down as we wait for Dig and Sara?"

Felicity nodded. Oliver moved with his characteristic speed, grabbed a pillow for her head and took off her shoes. As she laid down, Oliver grabbed an afghan from the back of the couch and covered her. Felicity gave him a small smile, which he acknowledged with a nod.

In his restlessness, as he waited for the rest of their team to show up, Oliver wandered into the kitchen. He absentmindedly looked in the refrigerator, saw a beer and took it out. Pulling out a chair at the kitchen table, Oliver sat watching Felicity's figure on the couch. She had burrowed herself into the pillow and afghan, so all he could see, besides the afghan, was a small amount of blonde hair spread out on the pillow.

After drinking the beer, Oliver got up again and made his way into the living room. Amazingly enough, Felicity was sleeping soundly. Oliver shook his head while looking down at her. Tear stains were apparent on her beautiful cheeks, and fatigue clearly showed on her face. Oliver was about to caress her cheek when he remembered. Pulling his hand back, he closed his eyes and weathered a wave of grief for his girl.

The door suddenly opened, and Sara and Diggle walked through. They looked at Oliver, who pointed to the couch and put a finger to his lips in the 'quiet' gesture. He followed the other two into the kitchen, and he and Sara took seats at the kitchen table. Dig went to the refrigerator, took out three beers and brought them to the others.

Taking his seat, Dig said, "Well, nothing appears missing, and nothing seems touched. At least from what we could discover tonight."

Sara added, "Yeah, I think it's a smart idea for discussing our plans here instead of the lair. Until we can do a sweep with ARGUS equipment, I agree we should be careful with what we talk about in there."

The friends sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts, wondering what they could say. Oliver stood the silence as long as he could, then he put his head in his hands, resting his elbows on the table. "What exactly happened, guys? How did he get to her? Why didn't she tell us?"

"She probably knew it would destroy you. But too bad she didn't realize how truly evil he is. She probably didn't think he would tell you." Gritting his teeth, Dig added, "I suppose because of the trauma, she didn't think of the possibility of him taping it to show it to you later."

"That was why he did it. Or at least one of the reasons. I'm surprised I haven't run off yet to find him. All I want is to kill him. How dare he do that to Felicity?" Gripping his hair, Oliver released it, leaving it standing up. "How am I to live with this? I caused this." The agony Oliver was feeling showed clearly in the sorrow in his eyes, the slumping of his shoulders, the downcast look.

"I'm actually surprised you haven't run after him either. But not knowing where he is, I suppose, is a very strong determent." Dig took a slug of beer, swallowed it, and looked at Oliver with understanding. "Oliver, you did _not_ cause this. It is _not_ your fault."

Oliver appeared as though he wanted to cry. "Oh, Dig, why did this have to happen to Felicity? She doesn't deserve this." He put his head in his hands and shook his head.

"No one deserves it, Oliver. I know it's difficult but we need to be strong for our girl. To get her through it." An idea occurred to Dig. "It must have killed her keeping this a secret from us."

"Why did she then!" Oliver slammed his hand down on the table, causing the beer bottles to topple. Dig caught them before they fell over.

"Funny coming from Mr. 'Keep-it-all-inside' Queen," Sara muttered, looking at Oliver without apology.

Oliver wrinkled his nose at Dig, acknowledging the well-deserved jab. "But Felicity's different. She doesn't deserve to have awful things happen to her." Adding, more softly, "The circumstances are also different."

"And _you_ deserve awful things? Or because your circumstances were supposedly different?" Dig asked.

"Okay, let's agree not to talk about my hang-ups here. What is important is getting Felicity the help she needs."

Sara spoke after swallowing a sip of beer. "I think she should attend one of her meetings tomorrow at the center. And I think I should accompany her…just in case Slade comes after her again."

"That sounds like a great idea," Oliver said. "She's probably not expecting me to allow her out of my sight."

Sara said, "I looked at their website. They have groups for friends and family, as well as informational talks. I can attend those while Felicity is attending her groups." She took a breath. "I'll see what information I can get you guys, but I think it would be a good idea if you two could attend one of those sessions this week as well."

The two men looked at each other. Dig raised an eyebrow; Oliver nodded. "We'll see, Sara. It seems like a good idea, provided…."

Silence followed as the three drank their beers. The words, "provided we can catch Slade" hung in the air unsaid.

"Make sure she knows she shouldn't go off alone for any reason whatsoever," Dig said in a low, stern voice.

Sara nodded. "Yep, good point. Will do."

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

After the three had sat up for a while, drinking several beers, it was decided it was time to go to bed. Oliver made it known he was going to sleep in an armchair next to the couch in the living room, instead of the cot Dig had placed in his bedroom. Sara quirked an eyebrow but remained quiet, choosing not to comment on his overprotectiveness. _He probably needs just as much to be near Felicity as she needs him to by her for security._ She headed to the guest bedroom, with Dig following to his bedroom, after leaving a small light on in the kitchen.

About an hour later, after he'd fallen into a light sleep, Oliver heard Felicity calling for him softly, while assuming she was dreaming. He quickly went to the couch and knelt beside her when he observed her eyes were open and looking at him.

"I'm here, Felicity." Looking into her face, taking her in, all he wanted was to hold her tight and never let her go. "Were you able to sleep some?"

Felicity nodded, then began to sniffle trying to stop her crying. Looking into Oliver's eyes she suddenly threw herself into his arms. "I know you're probably either angry at me for not telling you where Slade was, or you despise me after what he did to me, but I hope you will just hold me."

Patting her long silky hair lightly, he whispered, "I could never be angry with you for either of those things, Felicity. I also could never despise you. Ever."

As she softly sobbed into his neck, Oliver lightly rubbed patterns on her back, holding the broken woman in his arms. When she pushed herself away, she looked into his face and was surprised to see several tears on his cheeks.

"Oh, Oliver…why…why are you crying?" She cupped his cheek.

"How could you even ask that, Felicity? I'm so sorry this happened to you. Because of me. You don't deserve something like this to happen." He asked softly, "May I ask, Felicity, why didn't you tell us what happened?"

Felicity broke the eye contact, looked down at her hands grasping the blanket covering her. "I…I just couldn't, Oliver. I didn't want to be the reason for Slade breaking you. I…I couldn't bear it."

"So you sacrificed your own well-being for me?" Oliver gently placed his hand on her cheek. "You are so good, Felicity. I hardly deserve you as a friend, much less anything else."

"That's not true, Oliver. You are the most selfless, heroic man I ever have met. I only have wanted to keep you safe, to help you become the man I always have known you could be. But…you don't deserve to be broken like Slade wants to break you."

"But he's right, Felicity. I deserve it."

Felicity reached out and caressed his cheek. "No, you do _not_ , Oliver. You never meant to choose between Shado and Sara. You only meant to protect both of them. I know you are so self-sacrificing you carry around guilt you don't even own. I don't know why you do that."

"But…but…"

"No, Oliver, it was _never_ your fault. Quit thinking it is. You said yourself, Slade's mind has been destroyed by that damn mirakuru. He will not see reason."

"And now…he has done…how could he do that? How did you survive that?"

"By thinking of you. Of resolving to help you get Slade. So that he can't hurt you." Before Oliver could speak, Felicity hurried on. "No, I am not selfless. It's the only way I think I'm going to survive this." Looking down at her hands, she continued. "I…I didn't know what to do. I…I did get checked out right away, got the evidence collected. I…I just didn't know what to say to not implicate the Arrow into the mess. So…I lied that I didn't know who attacked me."

"Oh, Felicity…."

"And I should have told you about it…" Felicity choked back several sobs, waited until she had her voice under control, and continued. "But…I…I just couldn't. I didn't want you to be broken. And…I should have known he had…Oh my God…he taped it and then he…he…" Felicity began to cry huge sobs again.

Oliver let her cry, not wanting to interrupt her getting the grief out. Somewhere he had heard that was what you were supposed to do. Not offer consolation, but to let the tears flow.

"I will try to be strong and not blame myself either, for I know that is another reason why you didn't tell us. Because of my damned habit of always blaming myself. That should never have occurred to you. You should be able to tell me _anything_ , anything, from now on. Please, Felicity."

Felicity looked up into those blue eyes looking at her with such…caring…and could only nod. He then took her in his arms, where she could feel safe. She refused to let Slade ruin that for her. It was difficult, but she tamped down the feelings of shame which had no right to be within her. Oliver was her partner, her friend. With his and Dig's help, as well as help from Sara, she knew she'd get through this. Somehow.

 **AN: Thanks again for reading this chapter. Hope it flowed. A lot of touchy-feely stuff, I think and less action. Of course, more action is to come in later chapters. (Do I have a wing-banger of an ending for you, just you wait and see). Shame on me for dropping such a hint this far ahead. Oh well.**


	5. Chapter 5: A Breather

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this. Some scenes and dialogue were either inspired by or quoted from Arrow episode 2 x 18 "Deathstroke" by Drew Z. Greenberg and Marc Guggenheim.

 **AN: Thank you for all the reviews, favs, and follows. Hope this story is still holding up the promise you felt it did in the first chapter. Let me know, one way or another. Always appreciated.**

Previously:

 _Oliver let her cry, not wanting to interrupt her getting the grief out. Somewhere he had heard that was what you were supposed to do. Not offer consolation, but to let the tears flow._

 _"_ _I will try to be strong and not blame myself either, for I know that is another reason why you didn't tell us. Because of my damned habit of always blaming myself. That should never have occurred to you. You should be able to tell me anything, anything, from now on. Please, Felicity."_

 _Felicity looked up into those blue eyes looking at her with such…caring…and could only nod. He then took her in his arms, where she could feel safe. She refused to let Slade ruin that for her. It was difficult, but she tamped down the feelings of shame which had no right to be within her. Oliver was her partner, her friend. With his and Dig's help, as well as help from Sara, she knew she'd get through this. Somehow._

Oliver sat beside Felicity stroking her hair until she fell into a restful sleep. He stopped himself from giving her a kiss on the forehead and went back to the armchair. He forced himself to at least do several meditative exercises, because even if he didn't fall asleep again, he still needed rest.

Finally, he fell asleep, but several hours later he woke up to hear his name being called. He opened his eyes to see the beautiful blue eyes of Felicity, filled with concern, looking at him.

"You were in the middle of a nightmare…I couldn't bear to hear you like that."

"I'm glad you didn't touch me, Felicity…."

"Yes, yes, I know. Don't touch you while you're sleeping. I'd rather not add to my bruises with your tackling me to the floor. Not that I wouldn't like that, I mean, 3…2….1…"

Deciding to ignore her faux paus, Oliver asked, "What time is it?"

"About seven I believe."

"Do you feel as though you'd be able to sleep some more?"

Felicity shook her head sadly. "I don't think so. And I'm not even hungry."

"Maybe I could tempt you with chocolate chip pancakes? Provided, of course, whether Dig has the fixings for them."

Felicity returned his smile. "That does sound good. I think I'd like to get a shower in while you do that. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all. Your suitcase is over there, in the corner."

Oliver walked to the kitchen, but turned back to watch as Felicity took some clothes and bath items from her suitcase and then walked into the bathroom. He was pleased to see she looked somewhat rested. At least some of the bags under her eyes were gone, and she seemed somewhat herself. As well he knew, it all could be a cover, but it did give him some comfort that she could at least act like herself, even if she was only pretending.

Oliver shook his head to clear out such thoughts and began to collect the ingredients for his special, special chocolate chip pancakes.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Sara and Dig had woken up by the time breakfast was ready. Not only was Oliver able to make pancakes, he found and cooked up eggs and bacon as well. Everyone gathered around the table looking forward to the scrumptious breakfast. They ate in somewhat comfortable silence, until Felicity spoke.

"I was thinking…I know what Oliver will say about me going out by myself, but I was thinking…I really need to visit the center today. To talk about stuff from yesterday."

Sara smiled at her. "Guess what, Felicity? It's all decided…I'm going to accompany you there. Grumpy Pants agreed."

Oliver quirked an eyebrow at her, "Grumpy Pants?"

Felicity failed to smile at that. "Not to sound ungrateful, but you were talking about me? Without me there." She added quickly, "Not that it isn't okay, because I know it comes out of love, but I don't know how I feel about you talking behind my back while I sleep." She took a breath, and said, "I mean, I suppose I didn't used to mind, I suppose, but now, I guess I'm more sensitive. So, I apologize, but…."

Deciding to interrupt her babble, Dig said, "We didn't go behind your back, Felicity. We just want to do what's best for you, and want to be there for you. We hoped you'd want to go to the center today, and understandably we were concerned about you going by yourself. With Slade still out there. Somewhere."

"And…the center has programs for family and friends as well, so I…if it's all right with you, I will check them out while you are doing your therapy." Sara made sure Felicity was looking at her. "Because I'm concerned, and I only want to do what's best, and I want to learn." In a quieter tone, Sara added, "Um, there just might be something in my past I would like to discuss with a counselor as well, while I'm there." She cleared her throat. "Something stirred up with Slade returning and all this mess."

Oliver looked at Sara with concern. Turning to him, Sara said, "I know, Ollie. We still have some secrets from each other, don't we?"

Oliver pursed his lips, but didn't ask any questions. "So, Felicity, you and Sara will go there, while Dig and I start brainstorming on several issues we have. See if we come up with any answers." He cleared his throat. "And…I was thinking, we should change your locks at your apartment and upgrade your security system. Is that okay?"

Felicity was about to object, but Oliver looked at her with such pleading in his eyes, she could only shake her head. "Okay, yes, do it. It's a smart idea, after all. Thank you for thinking of it." Looking down at her hands in her lap, she said softly, "Even though I've been thinking about moving." When she didn't get a reply from anyone, Felicity looked up at the other three and decided to be honest. "I haven't been able to sleep in my bedroom since…since…you know."

"Perfectly understandable," Sara said. "Maybe if there's a quiet moment, I'll grab the want ads and start looking for a new place for you. As a head start. Get some ideas and all that."

Felicity nodded, "Yes, that would…that would be truly helpful."

Oliver cleared his throat. "In the meantime, Dig and I will still fix your security problems. I will also call Roy and...let him know we had a few run-ins with Slade while he and Thea have been out of town."

Dig said, "Yeah, can't wait to see the kid and tease him about his romantic get-away."

"Watch it," Oliver pretended to growl. "That's my baby sister he ran off with, you know."

Dig slugged Oliver on the shoulder as he stood up on his way to the kitchen sink with his dishes. "I know, man. You gotta let it go. She's an adult now, you know."

"Barely," Oliver smiled, silently acknowledging the teasing, but quickly changed the subject. "We better get going, though. Lots to do. And perhaps we can fit in a work-out as well today."

"I'll wash dishes while Sara gets ready," Felicity offered as she stood up and started gathering the rest of the dishes together.

"You don't have to do that, Felicity. I'll get them later," Dig said.

"No, that's okay. I need something to keep me busy."

Dig winked at her as he and Oliver were leaving. "We'll see you two later, then."

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Felicity and Sara did spend the rest of the day at the center. Sara was pleasantly surprised with the counseling she herself received for the feelings which had erupted with the reappearance of Slade and with Felicity's incident. Even though Ivo protected her on the ship when she'd been rescued after the yacht went down, there were a few instances, in the early days, when a crew member had gotten Sara alone for a time, and…so Sara was able to get those feelings sorted out without spilling details about Oliver or the Arrow.

With the basic security of the apartment building where Felicity lived, Oliver and Dig decided an added security lock and a burglar alarm were all that was needed to make them feel secure about "their" girl's safety. For now.

Roy and Thea were indeed back in town, and Roy sounded rested. Oliver hated calling him in to patrol that night, but decided they needed everyone on board, just in case. In telling Roy about Slade and his run-ins with the team, he didn't specify the details regarding Felicity. Those details he'd share in person. Later.

Sara kept in contact with Oliver throughout the day, finally texting him they would be at the Lair at 6pm, after they stopped at Felicity's for her to pick up some things she needed. She'd decided to take advantage of Dig's offer to spend another night at his place. Oliver suggested they all meet at the Lair for supper then. He and Dig would bring the food. He somehow felt Felicity would feel more comfortable there instead of a crowded restaurant, and they'd be able to discuss Arrow business without restraint.

By the end of the afternoon, Felicity felt drained but good. She was never one for talking about her feelings, but she now understood the benefit of talking about a trauma in order to heal. It was somewhat tricky talking about what happened the day before, especially the shock and pain of the video being shown to her friends, without revealing anything about the Arrow. Luckily, with the advent of camera phones and texting, she could change the story somewhat and say her assailant was a known acquaintance of her's, had videoed his attack without her knowing it, and sent it to her friends. It was weird, but she got a small sense of pride in herself for coming up with a valid story.

So overall, even with the fear of Slade hanging over them, and the trauma done to Felicity, the group could simply spend some time enjoying a supper together. The group was pleased to see an occasional smile appear on Felicity's face, which cheered everyone else. Since it appeared to be a quiet night, and everyone was still recovering from the events on Saturday, Oliver suggested everyone go home early. They would all need their rest, for the week ahead.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Oliver slept in his own bed Sunday night. He'd rather had spent the night at Dig's, watching over Felicity. But…his cowardly heart had decided it would show too much worry for only a friend. So…he spent a night at the mansion. Even though he was sleeping in a bed, he felt he'd gotten more sleep last night in a chair. Oliver pushed such thoughts aside for now, telling himself there were more immediate things to think about at the moment. Mainly, QC, since he'd been ignoring it for this mess with Slade.

It being Monday, Oliver had wanted to turn a new leaf and show up at the office 'early'. And with Felicity being out most of last week, he hadn't had the opportunity to check her computer to see if anything hadn't been pointed out to him of which he should be aware. With all his good intentions, he still managed to only get to the office at 9am. Which, for him, was better than his usual 10am.

Oliver had convinced Felicity to take another two weeks off, to continue her progress in healing. He also secretly hoped they had defeated Slade by then, so Felicity wouldn't have to worry about that while working. She planned to go the center five days a week, to take advantage of all the resources they had available. Then, depending upon how she was feeling, she'd join them in the Lair. But, as Oliver emphasized, only if she was up to it. She gave him a small smile when he said that, thanking him for understanding.

Upon their arrival at QC, Oliver and Diggle headed directly up to Oliver's office. Oliver couldn't help but notice the occasional strange glance thrown at him from various employees. A certain unease rolled down his back. Something was apparently wrong, but Oliver couldn't fathom a guess. Perhaps his alarm bells to check Felicity's emails went off a little too late?

As they entered the elevator, Diggle asked, "Have you noticed the weird glances we've been getting?"

"Yeah, and I also sense weird vibes in general around here as well. Something's off."

Oliver strode off the elevator with Diggle at his heels, who had to stop suddenly as to not run into Oliver, who had stopped for no apparent reason. However, with one look around the office Diggle knew what the problem was.

Isabel was sitting at Oliver's desk, and boxes were lined up beside the door on a cart.

Diggle then looked across the room at Felicity's desk and saw a similar pile of boxes on another cart across from her desk against the wall.

"How nice of you to finally make an appearance, Oliver," Isabel said, remaining seated in his chair.

"Isabel, what the hell is going on?" Oliver asked as he walked into the room.

"Well, on Friday the Board of Directors called an emergency meeting for 7am this morning. It was very unfortunate you seemingly couldn't make it."

Oliver looked at Diggle, who shrugged. "I had no idea such a meeting was taking place. No one let me know." He managed to keep his voice calm. "Otherwise I certainly would've been here."

"You didn't know about the meeting?" Isabel asked with fake concern as she rose from his desk, walking around it with a small smile hovering on her lips. "A message was sent to your assistant. Didn't she pass that on to you? She should've given it to you." She gave him another innocent look.

"You know damn well Felicity had called in sick the rest of last week."

"Oh, I did? I guess it slipped my mind."

Oliver swallowed his impatience to ask, "Why didn't _you_ tell me about the meeting yourself?" He asked the question but somehow knew what she was going to say.

"Were you in the office Friday?" Isabel's eyes widened as a look Oliver knew wasn't innocent appeared on her face. "I don't seem to recall that. Friday was a very busy day for me. I guess it didn't occur to me to check up on you. Again."

"What was the meeting about, Isabel?" A hint of Oliver's 'Arrow' voice snuck in his question.

"It was to discuss your fitness to continue as CEO of Queen Consolidated. The ending vote was unanimous; you don't have the board's confidence, so you have been removed."

"What?"

"Needless to say Ms. Smoak has been let go. May I suggest, Oliver, you take your belongings, as well as Ms. Smoak's, and leave these premises immediately. Before I have security called. I am now CEO of your family's business, Oliver, and you're no longer welcome here."

Oliver started toward Isabel, but Diggle grabbed his arm. Oliver shook it off, but didn't move. "This…this is illegal, Isabel."

"I would have to disagree, Oliver. This is all very legal, I assure you. I am sorry this didn't work out. I really am. But, like I told you when we first met, you really aren't cut out to be a businessman."

Diggle pursed his lips. "Oliver, I don't like this either, but we better leave. Nothing we can do." Catching Isabel's eye, he said, "Today. But Isabel, we will be back."

"I have no need to be afraid of any so-called threat a lowly bodyguard or a playboy pretending to be a CEO might throw at me." Isabel walked back to the desk, turned around and said, "Too bad you were too busy with your _evening activities_ to be a proper CEO, Oliver."

Somehow, Oliver knew there was a certain meaning behind her words. Before Dig could stop him this time, Oliver had rushed towards Isabel, catching her unawares and pushing her into the back wall of his office, his right hand at her throat. Everything suddenly became very, very clear.

"Slade. You're working for him," Oliver said in a low, controlled voice as his fingers slowly tightened around her throat.

"W _ith_ , Oliver. Not 'for'. With." She laughed in his face, lifting her chin defiantly at him. "He knew planting me in your family's business would draw you back to Starling City. Truth be told, I was skeptical, but it worked out perfectly, wouldn't you say?"

Just as Oliver's fingers began to tighten completely around her throat, four security guards entered the office, revolvers drawn. Isabel's voice was raspy but calm as she said, "You better leave now, Oliver."

Oliver looked back at the four men and their guns drawn on him. He reluctantly removed his hand, and Isabel rubbed her throat as she stepped away from him.

"Let's go, Dig," Oliver said. As he passed by the cart, he grabbed the handle and pulled it out after him.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you, Oliver," Isabel's voice a pitch higher than normal and filled with triumph and scorn, followed him down the hall.

Diggle grabbed the handle of the cart holding Felicity's belongings and led the way into the elevator. As the doors closed, Isabel peered around one of the guards and gave a goodbye wave to the departing men.

 **AN: Hmm...seems like part of Slade's plan. What else does that man have in store for Team Arrow? And that Isabel. Just as much, if not more, a witch than on the show. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and have pity on a poor writer. Let me know what you thought of it. It is truly worth it to take the time to let FF writers know what you think. Thanks, always greatly appreciated!**


	6. Chapter 6: Yet Another Stand-off?

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thank you again for all the wonderful reviews and kudos, favs and follows!**

Previously:

 _"_ _Slade. You're working for him," Oliver said in a low, controlled voice._

 _"_ _With, Oliver. Not 'for'. With." Isabel laughed in his face, lifting her chin defiantly at him. "He knew planting me in your family's business would draw you back to Starling City. Truth be told, I was skeptical, but it worked out perfectly, wouldn't you say?"_

 _Just as Oliver's fingers began to tighten around her throat, four security guards entered the office, revolvers drawn. Isabel's voice was raspy but calm as she said, "You better leave now, Oliver."_

 _Oliver looked back at the four men and their guns drawn on him. He reluctantly removed his hand, and Isabel rubbed her throat as she stepped away from him._

 _"_ _Let's go, Dig," Oliver said. As he passed by the cart, he grabbed the handle and pulled it out after him._

 _"_ _It was a pleasure doing business with you, Oliver," Isabel's voice a pitch higher than normal and filled with triumph and scorn, followed him down the hall._

Silence filled the elevator as it slowly descended to the lobby. Diggle followed Oliver as he led them and the carts outside to the car. Dig hit the automatic lock opener, and Oliver opened the back door and began to throw boxes into the back seat, barely noticing them landing every which way. Dig placed a hand on his arm when he reached for yet another box. "Why don't you let me get this, and you get in?" he suggested in a quiet, controlled voice.

Oliver could tell his vein at the temple which tended to pulse when he was upset was doing it now. He gave out a breath and got into the front passenger seat. Carefully controlling his movements, he closed the door with the right amount of force. During the few minutes that it took Dig to straighten out the boxes Oliver had thrown into the car, load the others into the back seat, and pull the carts off to the side of the parking garage, Oliver attempted to get a handle on his uncontrolled anger.

Before Oliver knew it, Dig got into the driver's seat. He looked like he was about to say something, but Oliver couldn't bear to hear a calm assurance from Dig…yet.

"First he appears from the dead in my family home, supposedly to threaten my family. He then attacks Felicity in the worse possible way, trying to take away her innocence and break her trust in me. Then he takes away my family business." Oliver thrust his head into his hands. "He's succeeding, Dig. He's taking away, bit by bit, everything I hold dear. We haven't been able to find him. We haven't been able to stop him, or to guess his next move."

"I know, Oliver."

His voice muffled, Oliver asked, "What can we do, Dig? How can we stop him?" Raising his head from his hands, Oliver closed his eyes as Dig watched him. "He has had years to plan all of this. He hasn't said so, but it is apparent. How did he meet Isabel in the first place? How do they know each other? How could he find out all about me to do all of this?"

"We'll figure it out."

"But when, Dig? How?" Oliver slammed his fist into the dashboard. "Who's he going to go after next? Sara? Laurel? You?" His mouth open, Oliver searched for words as Dig drove the car out of the parking lot. "We just can't seem to get a handle on what his next plan is. How are we ever going to beat him?"

"You need to stop running scared, Oliver. I've seen you go through a lot, and I've never seen you as afraid as you have been since Slade appeared." Dig turned a corner onto a street taking them towards Verdant. "To think like him, you need to get that fear under control."

Oliver sighed heavily, and raked his fingers through his cropped blonde hair. "I know, Dig, I know. Don't doubt I haven't been trying to do that very thing, but…"

"I know, Oliver. And this thing with Felicity…"

"I cannot believe he used his raping Felicity to get control of QC. She wasn't at work Friday because she's still recovering from his attack. Supposedly she wasn't able to get the email notifying me of the most important meeting of my business life." Slamming his fist down on the dashboard again, he said, "How can something so devious occur to someone?"

Diggle could only shake his head in sympathetic agreement as he continued driving them home.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

That night in the Lair, the Arrow team was getting ready to go patrolling and Felicity was momentarily away from her computers in the far corner taking inventory of office supplies. As she walked by the computers on the way to getting her outfit, something on the computer screen caught Sara's eye.

"Oliver!" Sara's voice held a degree of panic Oliver hadn't heard since the island. He looked over at her and realized she was pointing at the computer screen. His heart jumped to his throat as he saw Captain Lance and Laurel tied up and gagged, kneeling on a rooftop somewhere, with Slade standing in between them, a revolver in his hand.

"Hello, Sara!" Slade's gravelly voice echoed through the Lair.

"How'd he get through my security walls, again?" Felicity mumbled, freezing in her steps as she heard that dreaded voice once again. She shook her head to break the hold fear held her in and quickly walked to one of the other computers and sat down. Her fingers flew as she attempted to trace Slade's signal.

"Good evening again, Felicity. How wonderful as always to hear from you," Slade's voice purred through the airwaves.

Felicity's fingers paused. Oliver observed her complexion grow white but her lips were pursed and her look determined as she resumed her search of the internet without further interruption or reaction. Oliver noticed a few drops of perspiration appear on Felicity's upper lip as an indication to the stress which she was under.

"What do you want, Slade?" Sara asked, subconsciously moving closer to Oliver, who put a hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"It's your turn, Sara. I considered offering Oliver this type of choice instead, since it was his fault it happened on the island. However, you also need to suffer the consequences of that decision. So this is your punishment."

"Like you said, Slade, it should be me you deal with, not the Lances," Oliver said, his tone low but deadly.

"But Oliver, Sara also should pay for her sins, for her part in Shado's death."

Sara couldn't restrain herself from screaming, "It wasn't Oliver's fault, Slade! It also damn well wasn't mine. You let my family go!"

"No, Sara. Like I said, it's time for you to pay."

Recognizing how fruitless it was to continue to argue with him, Sara asked, "What do you want, Slade?"

"You. On the rooftop of the Grandy Warehouse at the corner of Baker and Ninth. Within the hour. Or they're both dead." Slade laughed as he added, "Oh, and Oliver? If you have the guts, you can join her."

The group in the Lair could hear as both Quentin and Laurel began to yell loudly through their gags indistinguishable words. Felicity didn't doubt they were trying to tell her not to meet Slade.

"Now, like I said, Oliver is free to join you. But no surprises, Sara, or both your loved ones get a bullet in the brain before you can reach them. See you soon, Sara," they heard as the transmission ended.

Felicity turned in her chair. "What are we going to do? And what does he mean by all of this?"

"Oliver, you know what Slade is thinking about doing, don't you? He's going to make me choose between them." The panic Sara was feeling was apparent in her voice.

"Yeah, I know. We don't have much time. How do you want to handle this?" Oliver asked Sara, leaning back against the desk, his muscles tight as if in preparation for a fight.

"How do _I_ want to handle this? I want them out of there, and I want Slade dead. Dead, Oliver, dead!"

"Sara, try not to panic. We will get them out of there," Oliver tried to soothe away her nerves.

"Does he really expect this to work? He didn't demand you to come alone, Sara, so what _is_ he planning?" Diggle asked.

Sara looked at Oliver helplessly, and waited for him to answer. Oliver combed his fingers through his hair and said, "I agree, it does seem like a rather weak plan. Unless he has something else planned." Before Felicity could ask her question, Oliver shrugged and said, "I don't know what else he could be planning, but I agree. It is totally possible he's trying to distract us from something else. But what, I don't know."

"Well, I don't care what. We have to figure out how to rescue Dad and Laurel, and we have to do it _now_."

"Unless…unless it's Slade's way for me to expose my identity to them," Oliver said. "As well as yours, I suppose."

Looking around the Lair, Oliver could see Sara visualizing what her family saw while Slade had talked to them. Her face paled. "I didn't think of that, Oliver. Laurel must now realize I'm the Canary and you're the Arrow. They both must have gotten a good look at the Lair." After a pause, her eyes wide, she added in a flat tone, "And Dad now knows you're the Arrow."

Sighing, Oliver nodded. "We'll just have to deal with any fallout after we rescue them. After all, their lives are more important than keeping our secrets."

"No matter what happens?" Sara asked, not bothering to hide her skepticism.

"There's a chance, I suppose, your father will arrest all of us, but I think he more than suspects I'm the Arrow. He simply chooses to ignore it. Makes his job easier." Pursing his lips together Oliver considered his next statement. "Laurel is tougher to call. Even though she's been angry at the Arrow…she might change her mind knowing it's me behind the mask." He shrugged. "I guess we'll wait and see. But first, we need to get them out of Slade's hands."

Dig looked at his watch. "I think we better get going. I suggest Felicity stay on Overwatch, as usual, but Roy and I provide background. Perhaps while you two distract Slade, we can go in and snatch Lance and Laurel."

Felicity was biting her thumbnail as she followed the discussion. Her face troubled, she broke into the conversation. "I hate to be a worrywart, but…really, do we stand a chance? You four against Slade might have a chance, with his Mirakuru super strength, but what if he has men with him?"

Sara turned on Felicity. "What do you suggest? We not go? I go by myself?"

Felicity lost her temper. "I don't know either!" she yelled. "I don't know, but…what if?"

Oliver stepped in between the two women. Placing a hand on Sara's shoulder, he said, "You're not going in alone." Turning to Felicity, and placing his other hand on her shoulder, he said, "Don't worry, Felicity. We will beat him. Especially with Roy with us. It'll be all right."

Felicity wasn't completely convinced Oliver believed what he'd just said, but there was no other choice. She watched as Oliver walked over to his cache of arrows, picked up his quiver and loaded up with the specialized arrows needed in their fight against Slade. Diggle went to the storage bin for bullets and began to load up his revolver. Sara hurried up to change, as Roy walked over to Felicity.

"You're doing okay, Blondie?" he asked softly.

Felicity looked at him, giving him a small smile. "Yeah, sorry for the outburst earlier. I…I'm just on edge with all of this."

Roy nodded, letting silence say what he couldn't. "You know, I wouldn't let anything happen to him out there."

Felicity placed a hand on Roy's lower arm. "Thanks."

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Oliver, Sara, and Roy rode their motorcycles to the meeting place, Dig drove the van. Oliver and Roy wore their uniforms, but Sara didn't bother. There was a slim chance the Lances didn't know of the secret identities. Dig parked a few blocks away from the building while the other three rode past the building and parked a few blocks away on the other side. All four of them had comms switched to the channel Felicity was monitoring.

"Guys, I was able to hack into the building's security. I only see three heat sources, all on the roof," Felicity told them as she continued to monitor the surrounding area as well. "Nothing and nobody else shows up on surveillance camera either, by way of traffic cams."

"So far, so good," Roy muttered.

"Thanks, Overwatch," Oliver said, his body in fighting mode, all senses aware as they made progress along the side of the building. He observed a side door, motioned Roy to take that route. Dig motioned he was heading to the back of the building to check it out and go that way. Oliver nodded.

At the lair, Felicity was able to gain from computer access that the building was a three-story warehouse, with a large roof. Knowing Slade probably would know they were on their way up, Oliver figured they would climb the stairs instead of rappelling up the building.

Before they started up the stairwell, Oliver asked through the comms, "Overwatch, any traffic cam on the rooftop?"

"Nope, sorry, but the heat sources have hardly moved. The one doing the moving, it seems to be pacing the edge of the roof probably behind the other two. Away from the door."

"Thanks."

Oliver looked at Sara, who nodded. Oliver took the lead in climbing the stairs. Senses alert, they heard no one throughout the building. Reaching the door to the roof, Oliver rested for a moment, closing his eyes, and meditated for a moment. Opening them, he looked at Sara again. Nodding, she sighed and indicated he should go first. She would then take the lead going forward.

Oliver opened the door and took a cursory look around. Looking across the roof, he wasn't surprised to see Laurel and Lance facing the door, still tied up, kneeling in front of Slade, who had his revolver in his hand as he slowly paced behind his prisoners. Slade stopped and looked up, watching as Sara joined Oliver on the roof and began to walk towards them.

"Hello, Sara."

"Hello, scumbag." Sara's chin was up defiantly as she walked towards Slade, bow ready at her side with an arrow dipped in Tibetan Pit venom ready to be grabbed. She didn't want to look, but she couldn't help glancing at her sister and father. At least to make sure they weren't hurt.

"Stop right there, both of you. Place your bows down on the ground. Now." Oliver wanted to take the chance and shoot Slade full of arrows, but knew he couldn't beat Slade while he was holding a gun. He nodded at Sara, who knelt at the same time as Oliver to place her bow on the ground beside his.

"Now walk slowly toward us, if you please, hands up."

As they did this, her father met her glance head-long. She wondered how he could look so calm and accepting of her. Slade must have told them something of the island, something of their history. He closed his eyes and gave a small nod, instilling his trust in her…and the Arrow to get them out of here.

Laurel, by contrast, tried not to show her fear, but she had so little experience in these types of situations it was understandable she wasn't completely successful. Sara could tell she was a little shocked with her newly gained knowledge when she looked at Oliver standing beside Sara. Sara gave her a quick wink, which Laurel met with a surprised look, which was quickly hidden when she remembered Slade standing there watching them.

When they had crossed half the distance between them, Slade ordered them to stop. "You know how this all goes, Sara. Since you already lived it."

"Don't be ridiculous, Slade. Even with how desperate you are, you wouldn't kill a police officer and have the entire force after you or kill a police officer's daughter in front of him as a witness. So…I don't think you're going to kill either one."

Slade showed no emotion but for a twitch in his lower lip. Suddenly he pulled the revolver in front of him, aiming straight at Sara's heart. "Well, maybe I should just kill you then. Even if you are also the man's daughter. Perhaps I'd get more pleasure killing you in front of your family."

Sara tried not to show it, but she was waiting for signs that Dig and Roy had reached the roof. They would have to take the alternate doorway and come around so they wouldn't be seen. At least have a chance of not being seen by Slade.

"Slade, why don't we quit this charade. You're not going to kill them, like Sara says. What is it you're really after with this little fiasco of yours?"

"Oh, Oliver, yes, I will call you Oliver…you should have seen the surprise on these two individuals' faces when I told them you were the Arrow." Slade walked over to Lance and gestured with the gun. "He showed surprise, but I can tell, he was beginning to suspect. I wonder how long? I could've asked him, you know, but…alas, I had him gagged."

Walking towards Laurel, he placed an arm around her neck, pulling her suddenly against him. Laurel squeaked through the gag. "Now she, Oliver. It was interesting. She didn't know either. Very interesting, since supposedly she's the love of your life. At least you acted like that on the island." Holding his revolver to her head, Slade asked, "Should I take her out of the misery of finding out her young love is now the masked hero of Starling City? She didn't look happy with finding out about it, Oliver. Tsk, tsk, keeping secrets from the one you love. Makes me wonder if you really love her." Suddenly letting Laurel go, Laurel fell forward but Slade caught her before she fell on her face. He straightened her up, then he got up and walked back to the center between his prisoners.

"So they know. Is this what this fiasco is all about? Destroying whatever love Laurel may still have for me, and revealing to the police my secret identity? Well done."

"Yes, if I say so myself, it will be interesting to see what Captain Lance will do with this information." Slade, Sara and Oliver all looked at Lance. Sara wished she knew what her father was thinking, but his face remained expressionless, not giving any kind of a clue.

"Or what Ms. Lance, assistant D.A., will do." Everyone's gaze was drawn to Laurel, whose tear-streaked face looked helplessly at Oliver as she shrugged. "Who knows? Looks like she may still love you, Oliver, despite your infatuation with your sweet, sweet Felicity." At Laurel's confused look, Slade walked over to Laurel and bent down. "Oh, you poor girl. You didn't know you've been replaced in Oliver's heart by his assistant? Sorry to break it to you, sweetheart, but I think you have been." He stood up and walked back to the center, smiling broadly at Oliver and Sara.

"Anyway, this has been lots of fun, but I suppose I better go." Fingering his revolver, Slade first looked at Laurel, then at Lance. Despite herself, Sara couldn't help releasing a small gasp before regaining control. She could swear what was going to happen next, and she still hadn't seen Roy or Dig to come to the rescue.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Sara, but I've decided not to kill anyone. Tonight. Until next time, Oliver," Slade said as he quickly turned, shot an arrow with rappelling rope from it from a small bow hidden in his sleeve, and began to slide to the ground.

 **AN: Whew! All the Lances are safe (at least for now, it seems). What will Slade do next? Has he grown soft, charitable? (hint: no way!) Or did he decide to change things up and only irritate the Arrow team? Return for the next chapter to see what else Slade is planning…he is not done yet, not by a long shot.**


	7. Chapter 7: The Lances Know

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thanks for returning to this story. Hope you are still enjoying it.**

Previously:

 _"_ _Anyway, this has been lots of fun, but I suppose I better go." Fingering his revolver, Slade first looked at Laurel, then at Lance. Despite herself, Sara couldn't help releasing a small gasp before regaining control. She could swear what was going to happen next, and she still hadn't seen Roy or Dig to come to the rescue._

 _"_ _Sorry to disappoint you, Sara, but I've decided not to kill anyone. Tonight. Until next time, Oliver," Slade said as he quickly turned, shot an arrow with rappelling rope from it from a small bow hidden in his sleeve, and began to slide to the ground._

Before Oliver could react and grab him, Slade had reached the ground and disappeared. As he looked down helplessly trying to locate Slade, Oliver couldn't see him anywhere. Sara joined him at the edge of the rooftop, frantically looking for him as well.

Catching Oliver's look, Sara asked, "What just happened?"

Oliver curled his lip. "My third possibility. Slade exposed my identity to your father and sister and left without killing anyone."

Dig and Roy came through the door behind them. "Sorry, guys, there wasn't an opening to act. And then Slade caught us off-guard with his disappearing trick."

"Yeah, us too."

"Hey guys, what happened? Everything okay?" Felicity asked through the comms.

"Yeah, Felicity, everyone's okay. Unfortunately, Slade got away," Oliver said over the comms. "We'll be coming back soon." He looked at the Lances. "Probably with two new members knowing the secret."

Sara heard noises coming from her family. "Let's untie my family and answer their questions before they claw out of their skins." She walked over to her father and removed his gag.

"Yeah, I say, do I have the questions for you two. Especially you," Lance said, glaring at Oliver.

"I can only imagine…sir," Oliver said, being uncharacteristically subservient to the older man. _At this point it can't hurt._

Lance quirked an eyebrow as Sara cut the rope binding his hands. "Sir, huh? Trying to score points, Queen?"

The return of the Queen charm was marked in the smile Oliver gave Lance. "I can certainly try, Captain."

With Dig having removed Laurel's gag and bonds by this time, Laurel walked over to Oliver. "Why didn't you ever tell me? Why couldn't you trust me?" In a softer voice, with tears in her eyes, she asked, "Why _didn't_ you trust me?"

Oliver softly placed a hand on her shoulder. "Laurel…there's a lot which goes into that answer." Looking at her father, he suggested, "Why don't both of you come to the Lair, and we can hash this entire thing out tonight?"

"The Lair?" Lance looked sideways at Oliver. "I suppose you're going to tell me it's under Verdant?"

Oliver smirked. "Well, that was one thing I never did get a chance to thank Tommy enough for. I don't know how he managed it, but yes, he turned my hideout into a storage place before you checked it out last year."

Lance shook his head. "I can't believe I'm admitting it, but Merlyn was a good kid."

"Yes, he was," Oliver said, with a solemn look in his eyes.

"Yes, he was," Laurel agreed as she looped an arm through her father's. "I say let's take Oliver up on his offer, Dad. Even though tomorrow is a work day. I know I wouldn't be able to sleep unless some questions are answered."

"Okay. So, Dig, you drive Laurel and her father back to the Lair. Of course, the rest of us will follow on our bikes," Oliver suggested.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Laurel climbed into the back seat of the van, leaving her father to get into the front seat. She wanted to think about the huge revelation during the ride. How the man, the vigilante she had somewhat fallen in love with last year, but who scared her with his ruthlessness, was actually the boy she had once loved. How the vigilante she blamed for Tommy's death and had wanted to catch was actually the man earning her respect over the past months because of the growth he had been displaying. How complicated a man Oliver Queen had indeed grown up to be.

Laurel looked at her father's profile as he was excitedly asking Mr. Diggle questions about Oliver and his operation. Obviously her father wasn't struggling over the questions she was regarding what to do with this new knowledge they now had. Should he not arrest Oliver for being the vigilante? But, that would also mean arresting this entire group, including her own sister. Was that why her father was apparently not arresting him?

Suddenly Laurel felt a headache beginning. She rubbed her temples, trying to decide what to do. Could she really turn Oliver in? Should she? He basically was the same person he was last year, when she believed in his cause and actions. She'd only turned on him when she blamed him for Tommy's death. And hadn't she realized, with therapy and attending AA meetings, the only ones to blame for Tommy's death were Malcolm Merlyn and herself, for needing to be rescued in the first place?

"Laurel, are you okay back there? You're awfully quiet," her father asked as the van pulled up behind Verdant.

"Just thinking things over, Dad."

He got out of the van and opened her door before she could react. Assisting her out of the van, he whispered, "Are you struggling with what you should do about Oliver being the Arrow?"

She looked at her father, allowing her surprise and confusion regarding his behavior to show on her face. "Yes, I am. Aren't you?"

"No, actually not, Laurel."

She watched as her father caught Mr. Diggle's eye. "I'm going to leave you two to talk out here, until the others show up," Mr. Diggle said, nodding solemnly at her.

Laurel watched the taciturn black man walk towards the back door, then turned towards her father. "Why not?"

"Look at all the good he has done for this city. I know we can't have loads of people carrying out justice on their own, but Oliver…he has done some good. He doesn't need to be punished for that."

"But what about our oaths?"

"Sometimes we have to weigh the greater good."

"I'm not totally comfortable with this."

"I have to admit, it took me a while to come around to it as well, but…Felicity helped me change my mind. She…"

"Felicity, again," Laurel mumbled.

Lance quirked an eyebrow. "Are you bothered by what that man Slade said about Felicity replacing you as Oliver's 'true love'?"

Laurel heard a little bit of scorn creep into the phrase 'true love'. Leave it to her father to bring some levity into the situation. Laurel sighed. "I don't know, Dad. We tried again last year, and it didn't work out and he left after Tommy died. When he again returned, I was so bitter I didn't want anyone in my life. Now…with this knowledge of who Oliver really is…I'm just not sure."

Laurel heard cycles approaching, and turned to watch Oliver, Roy and her sister arrive. Oliver walked over to them after parking his bike. "Everything okay?"

"Just a little father-daughter talk," Lance said.

"Are you still willing to sit down and talk with us? Or should I be running to Mexico?" Oliver asked, looking Laurel directly in the eye.

"It's a lot to accept, to think about," Laurel admitted.

Oliver gave her a small smile. "I know. I do understand the type of…pressure this places upon you, Laurel. The ethical dilemma it places you in. All I ask is you listen to us and think things over." With his own attempt at levity, Oliver added, "And decide not to arrest us."

Laurel looked at Oliver giving her his characteristic 'Oliver Queen, playboy millionaire' smile she had so loved when she was younger and carefree. Before a cavalier choice made by her sister and her boyfriend devastated her life and changed her forever. She met Oliver's eyes and shook her head. "You shouldn't always depend upon that charm of yours to get you out of trouble, Queen."

"I know, but it does have a decent track record of helping me out of trouble, doesn't it?" he asked as he lead them towards the back door.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Earlier, as he rode through the quiet streets of Starling, Oliver couldn't help but be somewhat apprehensive with the upcoming conversation. Captain Lance, even though he'd been more willing to work with the Arrow these days, was still the police. And Laurel? He couldn't read her reaction to the news either. For months she'd been determined to capture the Arrow, but finding out Oliver was behind the mask appeared to affect her opinion. Or was it only shock he was seeing in their reactions? Oliver forced those thoughts out of his mind as Verdant appeared in his view. He would certainly find out their reactions soon.

Five minutes later, he found himself sitting at the table with the Lances. He felt almost as nervous as the night he had picked Laurel up for their senior prom. Oliver shook his head to clear out those memories as well and looked Lance directly in the eye.

"I suppose I'll let you start with whatever's first on your mind, Captain."

Lance quirked an eyebrow. "Well, can you give me the whole story about this Slade character?"

Oliver smirked. "Maybe not the _whole_ story tonight. For now, maybe just enough to make tonight make sense." Dropping the smirk, he said, "Slade was on the island with me, along with a woman named Shado and Sara, the second year I was gone."

Lance looked at his daughter in shock. "You were on the island, Sara?" Glaring at Oliver, he asked, "You said she wasn't with you."

Sara spoke up. "I asked Ollie, if I died, to tell you I had died on the yacht. And before you ask, yes, Oliver thought I died later, after our fight with Slade." Noticing her father's scowl and Laurel's impatient look, Sara said, "Yes, I'll tell you all the details later."

Both Lances looked at Oliver and Sara. Lance, shaking his head, said, "This isn't at all a simple story, is it?"

"That's exactly why, when I first came home, I simply told everyone I was on the island for five years, and that I was alone. Otherwise I would've been talking for a month trying to explain everything," Oliver explained.

"Anyway, Sara showed up, and you all were good friends?" Lance asked, bringing the conversation back on track.

"More or less. Until a guy named Ivo showed up. He was experimenting on human prisoners on a ship which docked at the island. After Slade was seriously injured, Ivo captured Shado, Sara and I, tied us up, led us to a clearing. He positioned Shado and Sara on their knees facing me, and asked me to choose which one to live, which to die."

"What?" both Lance and Laurel cried out.

"Like how he had Dad and I positioned tonight," Laurel said softly, understanding showing in her eyes.

"Yep, and…." Oliver started to say.

With a reproachful look at Oliver, Sara continued, "What happened, Ivo pointed the gun at me, making Oliver believe he was going to shoot me when Oliver didn't decide and demanded Ivo shoot him instead. But as Ivo pointed the gun at me, Oliver jumped in front of me and we all thought he was going to shoot Oliver. Instead…instead, he turned and shot Shado instead. Which I believe was what he'd intended all along."

"Sara…." Oliver tried to interrupt.

"No, Oliver. Do not let Ivo or Slade influence you. It was _never_ your fault. It was only Ivo and his sick sense of humor. He was…I think he was in love with me. Of course he wasn't going to shoot me. He was only playing with your mind."

Laurel looked between Oliver and her sister, not believing what she was hearing. Eyes wide with shock, she said, "That island really was hell, wasn't it?"

Oliver looked at her, sadness in his eyes. "That's why I didn't want to talk about it with anyone. It really, truly was hell on earth. Even if its name meant Purgatory in Mandarin."

"So…undergoing all of that, and much more, you returned to Starling with the idea of becoming some sort of vigilante?" Laurel asked.

Oliver shrugged. "I had to do so many terrible things, to survive, I decided, in order to live with myself, I needed to atone for it by becoming a vigilante."

Oliver saw, for the first time, true understanding dawn in Laurel's eyes. She looked down at her hands grasped in her lap as she thought of what was said. Looking up to see Oliver's eyes still on her, Laurel shrugged. "I guess I now understand what you all went through. Or beginning to understand, I suppose."

Oliver took a breath, let it out, and asked, "So…shall I ask right now, will you be turning me in?"

 **AN: This story sure is extending into all sorts of directions. For some readers, I know, that is kinda disappointing. Others, however, are enjoying it. I hope eventually everyone likes where the story ends up going. I originally meant it to be a story of Felicity dealing with issues, but along with those issues, comes things in life that complicate healing. Such as continuing to deal with Slade, and the Lances finding out about the Arrow. But I am lengthening this story, and adding parts to it, as I go along, from my original outline. I still have that wing-banger ending I can't wait to share with you. With Felicity as the star. And Slade getting his due.**


	8. Chapter 8: Laurel's Decision

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thank you so very much for all the favors, reviews, kudos, etc. from last chapter. Things have been even more hectic as winter complicates my getting access to the internet even more. Sigh. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Previously:

 _Oliver shrugged. "I had to do so many terrible things, to survive, I decided, in order to live with myself, I needed to atone for it by becoming a vigilante."_

 _Oliver saw, for the first time, true understanding dawn in Laurel's eyes. She looked down at her hands grasped in her lap as she thought of what was said. Looking up to see Oliver's eyes still on her, Laurel shrugged. "I guess I now understand what you all went through. Or beginning to understand, I suppose."_

 _"_ _So…shall I ask right now, will you be turning me in?"_

Laurel looked at Oliver, then at the rest of the team, who were all silently waiting for her answer. Her eyes fell on Felicity, who she hardly knew, but she could already see what had drawn her father to her. And Oliver. Felicity looked at Laurel, silently pleading with her. "Laurel, as I once told your father last year, the vigilante is only trying to do good for this city. That's all Oliver had ever wanted to do. All he's ever meant to do."

Laurel returned her gaze to Oliver. "In a way, you have changed so much while you were gone. But, then again, you still are the boy with a good heart, and good intentions, who always took care of his little sister. Who stood up to bullies bothering younger kids. You always did fight for justice, didn't you?"

Oliver shrugged, a light blush coloring his cheeks. "Don't tell all my secrets, Laurel," he attempted to say with humor. "So?"

"Of course I wouldn't be turning you in. How could I? My own father supports you."

Lance grunted in embarrassment, and then asked, "So, you never did finish explaining why Slade is supposedly crying for revenge against you, Oliver."

"It's because Ivo led him to believe it was my choice Shado died. He's angry I didn't protect her. Because he was in love with her as well."

Lance looked puzzled. "That's why? All this because a madman killed the woman he loved?"

"Well, the mirakuru sometimes makes the recipient…insane." Oliver sighed. "I would like to think the man who I once considered a friend would truly not act this way if he hadn't been injected with the mirakuru."

Laurel turned to Oliver. "Another question. Does this mean you'll tell me what you've been _truly_ up to since you've been back?"

Oliver considered Laurel, sitting there waiting for his answer. He wanted to know what was behind the question. Deciding it was probably best discussed in private, he said, "We'll talk more about it. Some other time, though. Like I said, there's a lot to discuss." Looking at his watch, he added, "I suppose we should end for the night. Some of us do work in the morning." He caught Felicity's gaze. "Oh, Felicity…we, uh, haven't had a chance to update you yet, but…"

"Oh, Diggle filled me on earlier. You and I, Bub, are out of work. Unemployed. Hitting the streets. Pounding the pavement." She placed a hand on her forehead. "I did it again. Babbling again. Sorry. Yes, Dig told me all about what happened with Isabitch." Watching Oliver's eyes cloud over, she quickly added, "Now, don't you worry, Oliver. I'll be fine, you and your family will be fine, and we'll get the company back and straightened out as soon as we can. After we take care of that SOB Slade."

Oliver walked over to her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder and leaving it there when she nodded her permission. "I'm truly sorry for you losing your job as well, and it happening so soon after…you know…"

"I know. Being unemployed complicates my recovery by adding yet another possible heartbreak to the mess, but…it probably has also brought up some issues I should address anyway that might interfere with my recovery if I didn't. So…it's a positive thing. I will look at it as a positive. A win, win. Go team!" Her cheeks turned pinker and she shook her head. "I must be tired. I think my filter is totally gone for the night."

Both Laurel and Lance stood up. Lance said, "I'll bring Laurel home. We'll get together within the next few days or so, and talk about more things." He caught Oliver's eye. "I'm sure not all of my questions have been answered."

His face somber, Oliver said, "I'm pretty sure you'll have at least a few more for me to answer." Nodding at Laurel, Oliver said, "We'll get together for lunch soon, okay?"

Laurel's lips trembled as she gave a little smile. "Okay. Just give me a call."

Sara said to the team, "I think I'm going to spend the night with Laurel, so I'm going to leave too." As they walked towards the stairs, Sara wrapped an arm around Laurel's shoulder.

Roy said, "I better get home…Thea's probably wondering what has happened to me." At Oliver's glare, he added in a softer tone, "Um, yeah, she's staying at my place tonight." He hurried up the stairs, following the Lances.

Dig looked at Felicity and Oliver. "You okay with taking Felicity home, Oliver? Or, I could."

"No, you get home. I'll wait with her while she turns off her computers."

Oliver was thanked by Felicity's smile, and answered the unspoken question in her eyes. "Yes, I remember you said it would take a little bit to turn them off tonight," he told her.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Felicity watched as the Lances left. Her head was threatening to bounce right off her neck with everything which had happened to Team Arrow in the past month. All because of one mirakuru'd idiot who Oliver unfortunately had met when away. Among other things, to have Oliver practically confess he actually had 'feelings' for her, then to have an evil supercriminal confirm it as well, in front of his ex-girlfriend yet, and her father, who was licensed to carry a gun, was just…beyond mind-blowing.

She turned to see Oliver watching her. "How you doing?" Oliver asked her.

Felicity shrugged. She didn't know quite what to say. "Confused. Overwhelmed. Tired. Frustrated. You name it." She looked him in the eye. "You sure we can trust Laurel to not turn us in?" Felicity felt a blush rise in her cheeks. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to be so direct."

"That's fine, Felicity. Yes, I believe she'd be honest with us if she were going to turn us in. Besides, we told them a lot of things without being Mirandized, so I think we're safe there."

Felicity suspected as such, but still breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to her computers to check their progress. "Yeah, almost finishing some of these searches, and running some alerts."

"No problem." He leaned back in the chair.

Without her realizing it, Felicity's mind-mouth filter faltered once again. "If Laurel would take you back, would you go back to her? As a boyfriend, I mean?" She gasped, her face beet red this time, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes wide, she looked at Oliver, who was staring at her with his mouth open. "I'm sorry. That just came out. Not the right time, and me not the right person to ask you such a question." Felicity coughed. "I guess Slade got me all shook up, and then he said that about Laurel, and she was acting different tonight, like she wants you back, and…."

Oliver looked at her for a full minute as Felicity squirmed in her seat. "I again don't know if this is the right time to discuss such things with you, because of your…recovery, you know, but…I'm not in love with Laurel any more, Felicity. That's been over for some time now. It just took me a while to realize it." He paused, as if attempting to gather his courage. "You came into my life, Felicity, and you accepted me for who I am. All the parts of me, without question. You brightened my dark world with your amazing personality. You made me believe in myself in a way no one else ever could."

Felicity's eyes filled with tears, even though it was the last thing she wanted to happen in front of Oliver. She could hardly breathe for taking in all the wonderful things Oliver was telling her.

"I did get the impression that Laurel may have changed her mind over a future with me. But… it doesn't matter, Felicity. I will always love her, and she will always be special to me. However, I no longer am _in_ love with her, and I don't want to make a life with her. I want that with _you_. Despite all the risks, despite all the threats, including any and all other possible 'Slades' of my world."

Reaching forward and taking her hand in his, Oliver told her, while looking into her eyes as if he could see into her soul, "If you will let me, Felicity, I will gladly help you get over what happened with Slade. If you let me in."

A beep from one of the computers interrupted them, and Felicity reluctantly turned away from Oliver to make sure it was all right. All the computer updates were finished, so she turned all the computers off. She then sat back in her chair and looked at Oliver.

"Sorry about that."

"So, do you understand what I've said, Felicity? No matter what has happened with Slade, no matter what would happen in the future with either of us, I _choose_ you. I want _you_. Maybe not right away, for we have a few things to take care of. But whenever _you_ are ready. Like I told you before, I will wait for you as long as it takes. Or if you want to let me in now, in whatever way you want, I'm in."

All Felicity could do in that moment was nod. And give the man of her dreams a little smile. She only wanted to sit a moment and soak it all in. Oliver again said he wanted her. Despite all her brokenness. She hated Slade for delaying the moment she wanted to have with Oliver, but she knew she would be healthy enough someday soon to be willing to be with Oliver sexually. Until then…

She wasn't sure whether Oliver could read all that in her eyes, and she wasn't sure if she was able to tell him either. She began to speak, but Oliver placed a finger on her lips. "I can tell…you feel the same. You don't have to say anything yet. Just know I'm here for you."

Felicity let her gratitude shine through her eyes as she nodded, whispering, "Thank you. Please let me think about all of this. To….to get used to this."

"Certainly," Oliver smiled at her and offered her his hand. "If the computers are done, why don't I take you to your apartment."

She accepted his hand and they walked out of the Lair together.

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, at least as far as Team Arrow could tell. Of course, this made Oliver very, very nervous. Felicity did go to the center every day, accompanied by either Sara or Diggle. Now, not only did Felicity continue to have the feelings from the trauma with Slade, she now had feelings stirred up by her firing and what the loss of her job meant to her. Felicity knew the loss of her job was in no way her fault, but suddenly, other unresolved issues from her life became apparent, which were bound to complicate her recovery. So she did have a lot to work out for the week.

Despite everything, Felicity did convince Oliver to "allow" her to come to the Lair Wednesday and Friday. Oliver reluctantly agreed to the compromise. Felicity wasn't too happy with it, but she decided to accept it. In the name of "choosing your battles", two days were a good start. And, as she reminded herself, learning how to accept good advice telling her to slow down and take it easy was also necessary for her recovery. She'd worry about the next week, and negotiating more days in the Lair, when it arrived, she told herself.

On Friday, she insisted on staying later than Oliver and Sara, saying her updates on her computer were not finished. Oliver wasn't happy, but agreed when Roy volunteered to stay and follow her home. He had promised Thea he would stop by and discuss some issues with her, and thought he'd let Felicity have some space without him for once.

Pulling Roy aside, Oliver said, "You make sure she gets home okay, and inside her apartment, before you leave. Understand?"

Roy smiled, resisting rolling his eyes. "Yes, sir, I understand completely."

"You're lucky you didn't salute me, kid," Oliver teased, knowing Roy well enough, he was surprised Roy had not included a salute in his reply.

"Yeah, I would've but I didn't feel like pushing my luck tonight," Roy said, smirking as well.

Roy watched as he and Sara left. He looked at Felicity, who said, "I'm sorry for making you stay. It wouldn't be too long."

"That's okay, Blondie. I don't mind. I'm going to stretch my legs." He got up and walked slowly towards the back of the Lair. _We really should clean this part of the Lair up, even though we're using it as legitimate storage for Verdant,_ he thought as he looked around the organized mess.

As he turned to walk towards Felicity, he felt a prick on his neck. He immediately turned to see if anyone was there, and the world turned black.

 **AN: Oh-oh. Oh dear. Now what's going to happen? Muhwahwah! Thanks as always for reading, and hopefully, reviewing as well. Always, always appreciated. Just to let you know, now the real fun begins….muhwahwah…..and you thought Felicity was safe when Slade didn't grab her the last time….muhwahwah….**


	9. Chapter 9: Felicity Faces Slade Again

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Welcome back! Thank you for all the kudos, favs, follows, and reviews. Always, always appreciated. I can't say how much it means to have a story appreciated. Without further ado, here's the next chapter…oh yeah, sorry for the cliffie last chapter…(kinda sorry, I mean, ha). It's in our writers' contract to have cliffhangers…just kidding….enjoy this chapter…**

 *****Warning: potential triggers for nonconsensual touch, etc.**

Previously:

 _Roy watched as he and Sara left. He looked at Felicity, who said, "I'm sorry for making you stay. It wouldn't be too long."_

 _"_ _That's okay, Blondie. I don't mind. I'm going to stretch my legs." He got up and walked slowly towards the back of the Lair. We really should clean this part of the Lair up, even though we're using it as legitimate storage for Verdant, he thought as he looked around the organized mess._

 _As he turned to walk towards Felicity, he felt a prick on his neck. He immediately turned to see if anyone was there, and the world turned black._

It being Saturday again, the day started lazily enough for Oliver. Or at least he attempted to make it so. He did sleep in later than he usually did, despite the nightmares regarding Slade and Felicity. Finally, when he couldn't sleep any more, he got up and went for a three-mile jog. It was still too early to do anything useful, so he walked an additional two miles, returned home and took his time getting ready, reaching Verdant at 9am.

As he parked his motorcycle, Oliver uncomfortably noticed Felicity's car already there. Something shiny caught his eye on the ground on the other side of her car. Oliver slowly walked around the car and to his dismay found Felicity's purse on the ground, her keys and other items spilled out haphazardly. Trying to tamp down his fear, Oliver called Roy as he gathered the items and put them back in the purse.

When his call went to Roy's voice mail, he hung up and dialed Dig. "Sorry to disturb you, Dig, but have you heard from Felicity or Roy at all since last night?" When the answer was negative, he said in a clipped tone, "It looks like Felicity's been kidnapped, if not Roy as well. Her car is in the Verdant back parking lot, in the same parking space as yesterday, with her purse spilled out onto the ground." Oliver rolled his eyes as he said, "No, I will _not_ wait for you. I'm going in and see what else is there. I'll be careful, but I'll see you in a few." He disconnected the phone, shoved it into his jacket pocket as he strode to the door. Punching the key pad emphatically, he opened the door and listened. Not hearing anything out of the ordinary, he then walked down the stairs.

Turning the lights on, Oliver's eyes swept over the lair. Nothing appeared to be out of place, until he looked again at Felicity's place. His heart fell again when he observed a note propped against the computer screen. When he picked it up, it basically was what he feared.

 _Oliver,_

 _Your dear Felicity is again visiting with me. However, we would like to talk to you. Please be in front of her computer at 11am Saturday. Alone. If I sense anyone there in your 'lair' with you, I will slit her throat quicker than I can call you 'Kid'._

 _Slade_

Resisting the urge to crumble up the paper, he took out his phone again and called Sara to inform her of what was happening and request she get to the lair ASAP. However, as he tried Roy's phone again, a ring tone went off in the back of the lair. Slowly approaching the area, Oliver saw a pair of feet he thought he recognized behind some stacked boxes, and heard the dial tone more clearly.

He rushed to the side of who ended up being Roy. Oliver quickly assessed for injuries as he positioned himself on the floor beside Roy's still body. Finding none, he checked for a pulse and was satisfied with the strong, regular pulse he found. He shook Roy gently and called his name. It seemed forever, but Roy's eyes soon opened.

Looking up into Oliver's eyes, Roy mumbled, "What's going on? Why are you in my house, Oliver?"

Oliver rolled his eyes. "No, Roy, you're not home. You're in the Lair. It's Saturday morning. You were to follow Felicity home last night. What happened?"

Roy's eyes roamed as he thought, then he suddenly sat straight up. His hands quickly went to his head. "Oh, I shouldn't have done that."

"Roy! You're going to be fine." Oliver couldn't help the exasperation sneaking into his voice. Reprimanding himself, Oliver asked in a calmer tone, "Do you remember what happened?"

Roy's eyes again roamed then he remembered. "Oh! Felicity!" Looking at Oliver in alarm, he said, "Yeah, Felicity was just finishing up her computer stuff, and I stood up and walked back here to stretch my legs and…suddenly," his hand absently touched the side of his neck. "I felt a pinch, then…I don't remember anything more."

Handing him the note, Oliver waited while Roy read it. Turning to Oliver, Roy frowned. "I'm sorry, Oliver."

Oliver silently patted his arm. "Let's get you standing and get some blood moving," as he assisted Roy into a standing position.

"Are you feeling all right? Any injuries?" Oliver asked, in a surprisingly calm voice.

Roy wiggled his shoulders, moved his arms and legs around. "No, I feel fine. Well, not fine, a little drowsy, but okay. I guess." As he noticed Oliver giving him a smirk, Roy smiled. "I guess I'm beginning to ramble like Blondie, huh?"

"A little. That also happens sometimes." Oliver felt grateful, as he almost always was, for Roy's knack for bringing some comic relief to stressful situations. "Let's go sit down at the desk. Dig and Sara should be here soon."

After they had arrived, Sara and Dig both read the note, their faces grim. Oliver knew his fear and worry were increasing exponentially every minute, and he felt like he was ready to implode right there. Earlier, with Roy, he had managed to hold in his anxiety, but it was becoming more and more difficult now for him to do that.

"Hey, Man, it's going to be okay," Dig told him, clearly concerned about his friend. "If you don't handle that anger, you're going to have a stroke."

"What if she isn't okay, Dig!" Oliver turned to a side table, and, not controlling his anger, sent test tubes, papers, and office supplies flying. "He has her _again_!" He turned towards Dig, anger clearly flowing off him in waves. "What if he…what if he…" whispering, "rapes her again?"

Walking quickly to his friend, Dig placed his hands on Oliver's shoulders. "I don't think he'll do that. He's only continuing to play with your mind, Oliver. We _will_ get her back. We will. Unharmed."

Oliver shrugged Dig's hands off him, closed his eyes with his hands covering his face and took several deep breathes. Exhaling slowly, Oliver tried to center himself as best he could. Looking at Dig he asked in a defeated tone, "What is he up to?"

Sara walked closer to him. "I don't know, but like Dig said, we will get her back. It'll be okay. We _will_ get him, and we _will_ put him in the ground once and for all. This has to stop."

Olive began to pace. "I'm…I just worry he will succeed and will take everything and everyone I love away from me."

"He can try, and is trying, but we can and will stop him," Sara told him softly. "And this time you'll make sure you kill him. Permanently."

"But I'm not killing anymore, Sara."

"Vows are not always iron-clad. Tommy would understand," Sara said, stopping Oliver mid-stride. As Oliver looked at her with sadness in his eyes, she repeated. "Tommy would understand, Oliver. And he would've understood everything you've done, had he been given more time to process everything."

Oliver had tried to tell himself that very thing multiple times over the past year, but he always returned to the disappointment and anger he'd seen in Tommy's eyes those last few months of Tommy's life. He shook his head. Now was not the time to think about all of that. Now was the time to rescue Felicity. Keeping her safe was and should be his only priority now. Well, besides keeping his family and the people here with him safe as well.

"You guys better leave. It is 10:30 now, and the note said 11."

"Like hell, Oliver, are we _not_ going to be here with you to hear what that asshole has to say to you," Digg said, not quite keeping his anger controlled.

"I agree with the big guy," Roy said.

"Oliver, you know, we can hide in the back, and hear what you both say and still not be seen," Sara suggested. "His Mirakuru'd improved senses do not cover things seen on videotape, I'm sure."

Oliver paced in front of them, combing his fingers through his short hair. "Yeah, you're right. You know, most likely he'll be asking me to turn myself over to him. Alone."

Sara curled her lip in disgust. "Yep. Most likely. And you know how we'd feel about _that_." Shaking her head, she said, "Like as in, like hell is _that_ going to happen."

Diggle said, "You could give us the address and we wait a distance away."

"We could do that. But what if something goes wrong…"

Sara threw up her hands in disgust. "If he actually thinks we're going to let you go by yourself without trying something, Slade is crazier than we thought."

Oliver glared at Sara. "What else can I do, Sara? I wouldn't put anything past Slade. We can't endanger Felicity. We just can't."

Dig looked again at his watch. "It's almost time. Let's sit back in the shadows, guys." Putting a hand on Oliver's shoulder, he said quietly, "You can do this, Oliver. We _will_ get our girl back. Don't let that scumbag unnerve you. You have dealt with worse."

Oliver nodded and watched as his teammates walked to the back of the lair. _That's what you think, Dig. That's what you think._

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Felicity felt her head pounding before she was aware of anything else. She immediately flashed back to Slade's assault and her heart began to beat erratically. However, just as quickly, she realized she was sitting in a chair. Tied to a chair. Not to a bed. But still tied up. And her entire body felt she had slept in the chair all night. Her eyes shot open and she looked around, landing on the only other person in the room with her. The one person she'd rather not see more than anyone else. Ever.

Sitting across from her, in an overstuffed red velvet armchair was Slade. Felicity tried to swallow her rising nausea and keep her breathing regular at the sight of her attacker once again, but flashes of her attack rapidly crossed her mind again, heightened by being tied up and helpless in front of him yet once again.

"I see you're as excited as always to see me, dear Felicity," the dreaded Australian accent assaulted her ears once again. If her mouth wasn't so dry from her anxiety, she would spit at him.

"What are you doing? Haven't you abused me enough to ensure revenge against Oliver?" Felicity's stomach lurched again as she said the word _abused_.

"Oh, my dear Felicity, I've only just begun." Rising, Slade began to walk towards her. Felicity instinctively forced herself as far back into the wooden chair as she could, but of course she couldn't go back much further. It took everything within her not to scream at the top of her lungs, as she fought off hysterics, trying to remain calm. She was afraid she knew what Slade was going to do next. _Please, not again._

"Don't worry, Felicity, I'm not going to taste your sweetness again. Like I told you, I usually do not enjoy such uncouth behavior." Walking past her, Slade strode over to a table behind her which held what looked like audiovisual equipment. She looked above her at the wall across from her and observed a video camera. Despite Slade's words, she fought another wave of nausea as she flashed back to watching the video of her rape with her team in the Lair while held prisoner by Slade.

"No, instead, we're going to have a little chat with Oliver right now." Slade turned the equipment on, then walked to Felicity's side.

Suddenly, Oliver's voice filled the room. "Slade! What the hell?"

Felicity couldn't help but breathe slower with just seeing Oliver's comforting presence, even if on a TV screen. Seeing him helped Felicity to center herself once again and regain some control. She noticed he was very pale, his jaw clenched so much that the muscle in his cheek was twitching once again. She also noted there was no one else around. Coincidence or planned?

"Happy late morning to you as well, Kid. Thanks for taking my call. Now, as you can see, Felicity is with me and she's not exactly too happy to be in my company."

Wanting to wipe Oliver's worry off his face, Felicity attempted to reassure him nothing had happened. "Oliver, I…mumpf." Felicity was interrupted by Slade's huge hand covering her mouth. Even that action made her begin to hyperventilate yet again, the smell of his aftershave reminding her of the last time he had held his hand over her mouth.

Crouching beside her as he looked into her eyes, Slade said, "Now, Felicity, I should have gagged you, but I did want to be nice. Please don't talk unless I tell you so." Cocking his head, he asked, "Do you understand?"

Felicity nodded slowly and breathed in relief when Slade's hand was removed, clearing her head of the smell reminding her of his assault. He stood up and faced the camera once again.

"Slade, these games must stop. You already did enough to Felicity, why are you continuing this?" Oliver asked. Felicity's heart hurt as she heard the fear and anger in his voice which he didn't bother to hide.

"Because I can. Because I want to. In case you were worried, like I told _your girl_ I'm not going to attack her like I did before. Even though she is tasty, I don't normally enjoy taking such sweetness by force."

"Then what _are_ you going to do?"

"A trade." Slade smiled like the big bad wolf he reminded Felicity of.

"Me for Felicity, I suppose." If air could be snapped in two, Felicity thought the air around Oliver would be in a million pieces by now for the amount of tension in his voice.

"Of course, Kid. Be here at 5pm. Alone." He gave a short laugh. "Without your bow or any other weapons either. Of course."

"Then you'll release her? Unharmed?"

"Unharmed. Unless either of you misbehave."

Slade must have heard the small intake of breath indicating Felicity was going to say something, because he turned to her and covered her mouth once again. "Tsk, tsk, Felicity. Remember what I told you. I know you desperately want to tell him not to be a hero and to stay away. I encourage you _not_ to say that. You know very well he won't listen to you." He shook his head. "Besides, that would be just too much melodrama for me to take this morning."

Removing his hand once again, he said, "Now, if you please, tell Oliver instead that you are okay. At least physically. And only that."

Felicity bit her lower lip. She wanted to dare say something more, but she decided she really couldn't risk it. Not with the unstable man with the superhuman strength beside her. Looking at Oliver, she nodded and said, "I'm okay, Oliver. Really. He hasn't hurt me, this time." She hoped Oliver could tell, by the message in her eyes, that she really was physically okay, at the moment.

"Good girl. I knew you were capable of obeying requests." Turning back to the screen, he said to Oliver, "I will text you our address. Like I said, _come alone_. Or all promises are void." Slade walked to the table once again and shut off the equipment. Turning around slowly, Slade caught her eye.

"I will be back. I have to get something," Slade told her as he walked out of the room.

 **AN: Oh, oh. Still don't know what Slade is up to? Or do we? Can you guess? Tune into the next chapter to see what Slade went to get. And as always, thanks so much for sticking with this story and reading this chapter. And…if you be so kind, let me know what you liked about it. Also always appreciated.**


	10. Chapter 10: Oliver Finds Out

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Besides thanking everyone for their reading and reviewing, I want to especially thank** **heidi2310** **on AO3 for the suggestion that prompted my Muse to develop this part of the story. I had a different idea for this part of the story, but her idea augmented it, for sure. The Muse ran with it all the way to the bank, so to speak. It made the story, I think, and hope you'll think so as well. Enjoy.**

Previously:

 _Removing his hand once again, he said, "Now, if you please, tell Oliver instead that you are okay. At least physically. And only that."_

 _Felicity bit her lower lip. She wanted to dare to say something more, but she decided she really shouldn't risk it. Not with the unstable man with the superhuman strength beside her. Looking at Oliver, she nodded and said, "I'm okay, Oliver. Really. He hasn't hurt me, this time."_

 _"_ _Good girl. I knew you were capable of obeying requests." Turning back to the screen, he said to Oliver, "I will text you our address. Like I said, come alone. Or all promises are void." Slade walked to the table once again and shut off the equipment. Turning around slowly, Slade caught her eye._

 _"_ _I will be back. I have to get something," Slade told her as he walked out of the room._

Felicity tested the ropes tying her to the chair, but they were tied too tightly, the knots too secure, to be loosened in such a short time. Felicity jumped as she heard the squeak of a cart being pushed into the room, the image from the movies jumped into her brain, with the villain wheeling in instruments of torture. Her eyes widened as she noted what looked like medical equipment on the cart, including a defibrillator, two syringes, alcohol swabs, gauze pads and dressings.

She swallowed once again, trying to keep her fear contained. Felicity wasn't certain, but she didn't think those were tools for torture. At least she didn't think so. However, because of her fear of needles, seeing them on the cart could be considered torture by itself. At least she thought so. Felicity felt Slade looking at her, so she met his gaze once again.

Slade pulled the cart next to her. "Now for the next stage of revenge."

Wanting to be brave, but her voice came out quiet and wavering. "I thought you told Oliver you weren't going to hurt me."

"I'm not. Well, that is, if it all ends well you shouldn't ever hurt again."

Felicity could see the color of the liquid in one of the syringes. Green. _Like mirakuru_. A gasp escaped her lips. Her eyes instinctively returned to Slade's gaze. "That's mirakuru, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." Cocking his head at her, his eyes calculating, Slade asked, "Now, how would you know that?"

Felicity hoped Slade wouldn't change his mind and torture the truth out of her, making her tell him of Oliver getting some mirakuru when he rescued Roy. He then could figure out they were trying to find a cure. Instead, she confidently said, "Lucky guess," and stared at him without flinching.

Slade laughed. "Well, I suppose you know something about it because of your young comrade. You see, part of the revenge against Oliver is taking your light away from him. I've already accomplished the first part of it. The second part of my plan is injecting you with the mirakuru. With any luck, in the best-case scenario, you'll be turned into an angry young woman with rage against Oliver for all he has exposed you to in his so-called 'mission'. His 'Girl Wednesday' turned against him. The ultimate betrayal."

Felicity had wondered if Slade knew more about them than they had thought with his earlier comment to Oliver about Felicity being Oliver's "girl". Now, with his taunt about the 'Girl Wednesday', Felicity was certain he'd somehow gotten to know too much about them. Somehow.

"Oh, you caught the fact I know all the little 'inside jokes' between the two of you? Yes, I have my sources and my ways. I have indeed gathered much information on all of you." Turning to the cart, Slade picked up the syringe with the clear liquid and an alcohol swab. "Now, we better get this done. Before I know it, Oliver will be here."

As Slade rolled up her sleeve, Felicity began to whimper, despite herself. "Please, don't. Please, please." She didn't know whether she was more afraid of the needle or what it contained.

"Don't worry. You may not even remember anything else besides your anger towards your 'hero'. So, you really have nothing to worry about." He plunged the syringe into her upper arm muscle and injected the fluid into her. "Now, I have taken care to do the procedure correctly by administering you the sedative first. Increases the chance you wouldn't die from it."

Tears rolling down her cheeks, Felicity's last conscious thought was a sarcastic one. "Oh, good. I have a chance of surviving this, only to become Slade's weapon against Oliver."

As the world faded, she heard Slade say from a distance away, "When you wake up, Felicity, it will be the culmination of a beautiful plan for revenge."

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Coming out of the shadows to join Oliver at the desk, the others gathered around him in silence, waiting for him to speak.

"Yep that went about the way I thought it would," Oliver said. "So, how can we sneak up on Slade without injuring Felicity?"

Even though they had ARGUS-level surveillance equipment in the lair, ensuring Slade wasn't listening to them. Oliver still wasn't completely convinced. Because it might mean Felicity's life, doubts crept into Oliver's mind any way.

"Or should we discuss this somewhere else?" Oliver asked, looking at Dig.

"Like I said, Oliver, Lyla assures me this is top of the line equipment ARGUS has," Diggle said. "We aren't being bugged now."

"Yeah, I agree. I'm sure we're safe to discuss things here." Sara walked around the desk and sat down. "So…unlike with my family and Slade playing mind games…Slade wants you alone."

"We must be careful how we approach this thing," Dig added. "I'm surprised you're not arguing about going alone, Oliver."

Oliver gave a half-hearted shrug. "It's the only way we can make sure we get Felicity out of this alive. Somehow, you guys have to get her out of there while I take care of Slade."

Sara looked at him skeptically. " _Really_? You're going with that particular plan?"

Roy laughed. "I agree with Sara. You think we're going to let you tackle Slade by yourself?"

"Look at how well it turned out when we tried to sneak up on him yesterday. It didn't," Oliver argued.

"A different building might give us an advantage," Sara began.

"I don't think so, Sara. And without Felicity to do her magic with cameras and surveillance, we have no idea what we are walking into. What…what he has done to Felicity, what we'll find in there. We've got nothing."

"What do you suggest then, Oliver?"

"Knowing Slade like I do, it seems as if he'll want to talk a lot, to showboat all of his grievances, to really make me suffer…so perhaps that'll give you guys time to sneak up and get into place. I still think it will come down to Slade and me fighting to the last, so…"

"That's why you think we can get in and sneak Felicity away?"

Oliver hung his head and covered it with his hands. "That's the best I got, guys. Unless you can think of something better…"

"To me, Slade has been proving how unpredictable he can be. I think he has even something bigger planned, especially if this is supposedly the last showdown." Diggle raked his hands through his short-cropped hair. "Can you think of anything different, Sara?"

"I haven't been able to outfox him since he smelled the dynamite we had planted on Heinrich right before we were going to trade him for Oliver on the island. So I'm fresh out of ideas as well."

Roy looked at his teammates, confusion on his face. "Guys, what is this? Felicity needs our help. We've never failed before; we aren't going to fail this time. Oliver, you'll be able to outsmart him again, like you did before. I'm sure of it. Hey, I don't choose dummies for mentors, you know."

Nervous laughter met his statement. Diggle reached out to mess up Roy's hair, Sara smiled her gratitude for his attempt at humor, and Oliver nodded slowly, reviewing what Roy had said. He gave the young man a small smile. "Thanks Roy. We all needed a reminder of how we fight. As I've found out most of my life, being flexible when going into a fight is indeed the best strategy, after all." He sighed, and the small smile vanished. "But…we still need some sort of strategy going in.

Diggle went to the computer and began to punch keys. "If I say so myself, I have become pretty good at hacking into building security websites. I'll see if I can pull up that building's blueprints, just to give us some sort of idea on the layout."

Oliver nodded. "That'll give us some sort of starting place." He looked at the watch "We do have some time to plan after all. Instead of panicking, like Slade thinks we will, we will plan instead."

~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~

Oliver slowly walked towards the seemingly deserted warehouse. He had decided to wear a blue Henley and jeans instead of his Arrow outfit. It felt strange not carrying his bow, but as he'd often said, he didn't need his bow to be deadly. At least, for people who didn't have Mirakuru in their system.

Senses alert, he entered by way of the side door. Suddenly two huge men appeared in front of him. Oliver started throwing punches in a non-specific pattern, but it didn't seem to have any effect on them. _Must be mirakuru. Oh great, Slade has soldiers also hyped up on it._ He said softly into the comms, "Slade has mirakuru soldiers here. Lay back for a minute." Oliver tried a roundhouse kick on one of the men, who ended up grabbing his leg, swinging him around, and throwing him into a pile of stacked boxes.

Shaking his head trying to clear the dizziness, Oliver stood up and was about to rush the two men when a third man came at him from the side and tackled him. Landing on the cement floor, Oliver felt his head bounce off the hard surface with such impact he almost could see stars in front of his eyes. However, before he could clear his vision, he felt his legs being grabbed once again and found himself being swung around, then let go. Flying through the air, he landed into a stacked shelf.

"Enough!"

Oliver's vision cleared enough to watch Slade walk towards him as he laid among the scattered boxes, trying to catch his breath. "Get him up," Slade said, nodding at Oliver as he turned away. Not noticing the men approaching him on either side, Oliver was caught off-guard as he was hauled to his feet. He tried to get his feet under him as he was dragged across the floor to an open door on the other side of the room. Oliver didn't attempt to struggle, however, for he knew it would be useless.

The new room was mostly empty, but it was the figure at the other side of the room, chained to the wall, which drew his attention. Felicity was seemingly unconscious sitting on the floor, her chin resting on her chest, the hair escaping her ponytail almost covering her face, her back resting against the wall.

His instincts kicked in, and he struggled against his guards in vain. His only thought was to get to Felicity, but the men were too strong for him to escape.

"Don't worry, Kid, she's not harmed. Only resting." Slade walked over to Felicity and gently brushed her hair out of her face and raised her head, angling it so Oliver could see her face. The unmistakable sign of blood running from her eyes down her cheeks was now easily apparent, as Oliver knew was Slade's intention. Oliver yelled and again struggled against the men's hold, knowing what that blood meant.

 **AN: Oh dear. What's going to happen? Will Felicity really survive the mirakuru? Will she really fight Oliver? Hopefully I can post sooner than later, so I don't leave you in too much agony.**


	11. Chapter 11: A Battle Royale

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Sorry for the nasty cliffhanger. Thanks though for the reviews. I decided to give myself an early Christmas present and post this early as well. Hope you will be kind and review, and enjoy!**

Previously:

 _Felicity was seemingly unconscious sitting on the floor, her chin resting on her chest, the hair escaping her ponytail almost covering her face, her back resting against the wall._

 _"_ _Don't worry, Kid, she's not harmed. Only resting." Slade walked over to Felicity and gently brushed her hair out of her face and raised her head, angling it so Oliver could see her face. The unmistakable sign of blood running from her eyes down her cheeks was now easily apparent, as Oliver knew was Slade's intention. Oliver yelled and again struggled against the men's hold, knowing what that blood meant._

"You said you weren't going to hurt her, Slade!"

"If she survives, then she wouldn't ever be hurt again." Slade laughed. "I would think you'd be grateful for that."

"You bastard." Hoping his comm still worked, he added, "Injecting Felicity with mirakuru. How low can you go?" Words failed Oliver in trying to express his anger completely. Slade's purpose in doing this was abundantly clear to Oliver. The final act of revenge. As Slade's laughter continued, Oliver's face became flushed red as his temper grew. He continued to struggle against the men holding him; Slade only shook his head.

"Kid, you know struggling is useless against my soldiers. See, I'm not going to be the one to kill you." Nodding towards Felicity, he said, "She will. Thus, the _ultimate_ revenge."

All Oliver wanted to do was to beat Slade senseless. Tear his limbs apart, gouge out his remaining eye, drive arrows into him. As he did with Shrieve in Hong Kong. However, all he could do at the moment was look at the still body of his Felicity, the blood slowly drying on her cheeks, and wonder if she'd ever be the same again.

Oliver watched as Slade took what Oliver assumed were smelling salts and waved them under her nose. As she regained consciousness, her body shook violently. Suddenly, her right fist blindly came towards Slade, catching him on the nose. Slade fell backwards onto the floor, landing on his arse and sliding six inches until he stopped.

Slade stood up, took out a handkerchief and wiped his bloody nose. Putting the handkerchief in his pocket, he brushed off his slacks. He smirked at Oliver. "For such a tiny thing, she now has quite a punch."

Felicity's eyes shot open. Oliver watched as she struggled against the chains, and with a loud growl, she stood up and ripped the chains out of the wall. Eyes blazing with an anger Oliver had never seen in them, Felicity rose and began to advance towards Slade, her fists clenching and unclenching with each step.

"Wait, Felicity! Remember, you're angry with Oliver Queen! He's right over there." Slade smiled as he turned to point at Oliver, who was watching in disbelief at Felicity's actions. Instead of his sweet Girl Wednesday, Oliver saw instead an angry, violent woman.

Felicity slowly turned around, eyes focusing onto Oliver. The two men who 'escorted' him into the room dropped his arms and slowly backed away from him. Looking at Slade for permission, who nodded, they fast-walked away from Oliver. As she walked towards him with a determined gait, Oliver could now see defined muscles on her slender frame which Felicity didn't have before. Felicity, even without mirakuru, had been known to scare grown men with her anger. Now, she was ferocious.

"You _ruined_ my life, Oliver! I am going to _kill_ you." She moved quicker than Oliver would have thought, getting behind him and wrenching his right arm behind his back in a most uncomfortable position. "Do you have a preference on how you die?"

Oliver, bracing his heart against what he didn't want to do, stomped on her foot as hard as he could, hoping she'd release her hold, and attempted to elbow her in the stomach. Unfortunately, that didn't even faze her. Before Oliver could follow that move with another, she yanked his arm in a different, more painful position and he fell to the floor in agony. Abruptly letting his arm go, Felicity kicked him in the stomach and delivered several punches to his face, sending him flying through the air once again and landing onto his back.

"Oliver, I thought you were a fighter. Or are you afraid to hit a girl?" She grabbed the collar of his shirt, holding him above her so his feet were dangling, and threw him into the wall.

Through a haze of pain, Oliver heard Slade's cackle. "Felicity, my dear, you're doing great. I should be filming this for cable television."

"I'm glad I have your seal of approval, Wilson. Why don't you help me get rid of this schmuck? Why should I get to have all the fun?"

Oliver struggled to his feet. An unbidden, irrational thought occurred to him. _Even hyped on Mirakuru, Felicity is still Felicity._ He leaned against the wall, waiting for Slade's reply, struggling against the pain and trying to regain his breath.

"Aren't you enjoying yourself, Felicity? I thought you'd want to make Oliver pay. Don't you want it to last, to draw it out to a painful end?"

"Suit yourself." Felicity walked back towards Oliver. She waved her fingers at Oliver with a 'come and get it' gesture, stopped, and alternated her weight from one leg to another in a fighter's stance. "Come on, big boy. Let's get this over with."

Oliver decided he had to make it look good, without hurting Felicity. Even though, at this point, he knew he probably couldn't hurt her anyway due to her mirakuru strength. He tried to fake right, hit left and go for a roundhouse kick. He only got as far as punching her left abdomen, but she caught his leg as he attempted the kick. She would've broken it but Oliver punched her in the face, knocking her backwards and distracting her so she unexpectantly released her hold on his leg, resulting with his falling to the ground. He quickly grabbed her legs and brought her crashing to the ground next to him, falling onto her back, hitting her head on the floor.

"Good, Oliver. You're finally getting warmed up," Felicity said, rising to her feet and rubbing the back of her head. She rushed at him, knocking him down as he was attempting to get back on his feet. He hit his head on the floor, producing a bleeding cut on the back of his head.

Rising, Oliver shook his head in a vain attempt to clear the dizziness and catch his breath. Getting tired of the fight, he made his first attempt to talk to Felicity. In between gasps, he pleaded with her. "Felicity, you don't really want to do this. Remember, it's me. Oliver. The man you saved from dying when I took refuge in the back seat of your car. Your best friend for two years. The one who brought you shot-up computers and sports drink in test tubes to help save the city."

"Really, Oliver, is that the best you've got? You're not going to mention being in love with you for two years while you chased every other woman? Being passed over while you flirt with everyone else?" she delivered an upper cut strong enough to send Oliver flying through the air, landing on his arse, and sliding several inches across the floor.

With her newly acquired speed, Felicity reached Oliver before he could get up, and she began to deliver punch after punch to various parts of his now battered body. Suddenly, Felicity rose to a standing position, shook her head, and blinked her eyes several times. A puzzled look appeared on her face, then disappeared shortly after. Looking down at her battered and bloodied opponent, she considered him for a moment then said, "Well, I don't know if you're worth any more of my energy."

Looking around, she located Slade and walked towards him. "I need a rest. I can probably beat him up better when it's not my first day of being 'reborn'."

"'Reborn'. I like it. I do believe I will enjoy working with you, Ms. Smoak." Slade smirked as he watched Felicity walk towards him.

Struggling to get up one more time, Oliver derived strength from that statement with the anger it stirred within him. "No way in hell is that _ever_ going to happen, Slade! No way will Felicity ever work with you. Mirakuru or not." _Over my dead body._

Having reached Slade, Felicity drew herself up to her full height, leaving quite a few inches in difference between hers and Slade's. "He's right, Slade." Catching him unawares, Felicity delivered several punches to his abdomen and a swift uppercut, sending Slade flying backwards and hitting his own head on the floor. Before he could recover, moving with her newly gained reflexes, Felicity got behind him and wrapped him in a head lock. "This is for doing the unspeakable to me," she said as she applied as much pressure as she could. Yanking her arm, she successfully snapped his neck.

Rolling him over, Felicity removed one of his swords from the sheath on his back. She stood up, raised the sword over her head, and was about to deliver a final, fatal blow to her attacker, removing his head and any chance of him being healed by the mirakuru and brought back to life, when Oliver's voice came to her.

"Felicity, stop! You don't want to do that." Oliver slowly approached her, despite the pain, but still determined to reach her.

Felicity glared at him mid-strike, her chest rising and falling rapidly from both exertion and anger. "Yes, I do. We need to get him out of your life forever. He needs to be dead, Oliver. He needs to be dead so he doesn't harm anyone else ever again. Not another woman, not you or your family. Or me." In a slightly softer tone, she added, "He needs to pay for what he did to me."

Having reached her side, Oliver placed a hand on her arm. She looked into his eyes, and they exchanged a glance meant only for her. Oliver silently begged her to listen to him, and despite her strength, she allowed him to lead her in lowering the sword.

"That's not the justice you want, Felicity," Oliver said softly.

Without realizing it, Felicity and Oliver were suddenly surrounded by Diggle, Sara, and Roy. Sara bent down by Slade, injected him with something from a syringe, and bound his wrists and legs in chains.

Looking up to see Felicity questioning her with her eyes, Sara explained, "Injecting him with Tibetan pit viper toxin, to keep him knocked out until ARGUS gets here."

"ARGUS?" Felicity asked, looking now at Oliver.

"Yes, I convinced Amanda to take care of Slade once we had captured him."

After Sara joined the group, Roy took one look at Oliver. "You aren't looking so good." He smiled at Felicity. "Remind me not to get you mad at me, Blondie."

"You're actually walking a fine line right now, Harper." Felicity scowled at Roy for a minute, then smiled. "Aren't you going to welcome me into the club?"

His smile faded. "It's not a club I wanted you to be in. Ever."

"Actually, why not? I could finally beat Oliver up. And now I have 20/20 vision." Felicity's own face then turned solemn. "Seriously, I do know what you mean, even though I've only been living with it for a few hours now."

Sara asked, "What do you mean, Felicity?"

"It's difficult to explain. It feels like I have these…charges…of electricity flowing through my body at all times. I feel I can't sit still. And…"

Oliver turned a worried face to her. "And, what?"

"I constantly have to fight to keep control of this roaring anger within me."

Roy nodded. "You explained it quite well, Blondie."

Sara asked, looking first at Roy, then at Felicity, "So…given the opportunity, you wouldn't want the effects any more?"

Roy and Felicity exchanged glances and answered simultaneously, "Yes."

Sara smiled and held up her phone. "Then you'll be happy to know, Cisco from STAR labs just texted me to say they think they got the secret to the cure figured out. Barry will be bringing the doses to us within the hour."

 **AN: Writing the fight scenes, I realized that the show never had any two people fight who were infected with Mirakuru. Well, Roy did try to punch Slade after he had kidnapped Thea, but not a true fight. So, I didn't have much info to go on, so I just wrote what I thought regarding recovery times and amount of being affected, etc.**

 **And I have to add this. As I was writing Felicity fighting, I was remembering how Laurel acted in season one, when she arrived to beat up Fuller as Oliver and Tommy were being beaten up by his bouncers. Wasn't that scene so cool? I don't know why we didn't get more of those types of scenes with Laurel season one, and even season two. Sigh. Instead they did the bait and switch with the Canary and made Sara the Canary. Sigh. Oh what could have been.**

 **Back to my point. I wanted to catch that fierceness for Felicity, and so I hope I did.**

 **Thanks again for reading. As always, leaving a review not only makes me happy but inspires the Muse to write more and write more quickly.**


	12. Chapter 12: Relief?

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: WOW! The reaction to the previous two chapters have been fantastic! Thank you for all the new kudos, follows, favs and of course reviews. All of you are wonderful. Especially glad you liked the battles. Yeah, I wonder if the show will ever give us Felicity fighting. She was certainly awesome in the few times when she has had to handle herself, especially against Cooper. Surprised Oliver too, I think. Especially since she's not been trained. Supposedly.**

 **I hope you like this chapter. It also has a few more surprises…keep reviewing, it gives the Muse the motivation to write even more.**

Previously:

 _Sara asked, looking first at Roy, then at Felicity, "So…given the opportunity, you wouldn't want the effects anymore?"_

 _Roy and Felicity exchanged glances and answered simultaneously, "Yes."_

 _Sara smiled and held up her phone. "Then you'll be happy to know, Cisco from STAR labs just texted me to say they think they got the secret to the cure figured out. Barry will be bringing the doses to us within the hour."_

Felicity felt like her legs had been kicked out from under her, which surprised her. A myriad of emotions swept through her with the news that the poison within her, threatening her natural sunny disposition, could be reversed. Relief, surprise, shock, but also a strange sense of disappointment as well, which surprised her. However, when she recalled how she felt while fighting Oliver and Slade, an addicting sense of capability, of power, flowed through her. It was invigorating. She had never felt so alive, so powerful, so…enabled. Suddenly she wasn't sure if she wanted to get rid of that feeling.

That awareness brought on a sense of uneasiness. She would've thought the possibility of getting the mirakuru reversed would only be a relief. All of a sudden Felicity was more confused than she'd ever been in her entire life. It almost felt as though she was tempted to keep something too good to be true.

"Felicity?" Oliver asked softly from right beside her.

She turned slowly to look up at him. Oliver was looking at her with such love and concern in his eyes. Despite her attempting to kill him only minutes before. Of course, that wasn't really her back there, it was the mirakuru. So, if it could make her almost kill the man she loved, why was she hesitating getting rid of it?

"Because it's intoxicating to be that powerful," Roy said.

Felicity startled. "My damn filter." She sighed in resignation as she acknowledged she had said that last sentence out loud. Her pale face reddened as she realized she said "the man she loved".

Oliver nodded. "Yes. I can certainly understand, especially in light of what Slade had done to you, why you would want to feel powerful. Knowing that nothing could possibly hurt you again. However.."

"However, it isn't exactly healthy to have it within my system, is it?"

Roy shook his head. "Not really. Always having to battle the anger, it gets old pretty fast."

"Not to mention what the long-term health effects are, having it in your system," Oliver said.

"It most certainly could change even your sunny nature, Felicity," Sara added with a wry smile. "It's also not a healthy way to heal from the assault, even though it would give you a way to resolve your feelings. As well as feeling like you'd never be powerless again." After giving Felicity a wry smile, Sara added, "But it doesn't really deal with the crux of the situation, and healing that part of your psyche."

Before they could continue the conversation, Oliver heard something. He quieted the group down and walked toward the door. However, a group of four men in suits entered the room. One of them walked directly towards Oliver, holding up a badge.

"Miller, from ARGUS. Agent Michaels was pulled away at the last minute by Director Waller for an item of top priority. She sent me to pick up your prisoner."

Oliver took the badge and studied it. He nodded, and handed it back. He studied the other three men. "Yes, he's lying over there. We gave him a dose of pit viper venom to sedate him for the trip. With the mirakuru in him, it's the only thing that will take him down."

"Yes, we've been updated with all of that."

WHOOSH! Oliver still jumped from the sound, even though he had been expecting Barry to arrive.

"Hi guys! Got the antidote right here for you." He handed Oliver a briefcase. Oliver placed it on the ground, opened it and took one out. He was about to walk over to Slade when Agent Miller spoke up.

"Ah, if I may interrupt. Are we sure we want to administer that on top of the pit viper venom already in his system?"

The Flash rubbed the back of his neck and looked at Oliver. "You know, he does have a point. Off hand, I think the venom might interfere with the antidote taking effect."

Miller reached his open hand towards the Flash. "We'll take it and administer it after he wakes up and we have him secure on the premises."

The Flash looked at Oliver, who nodded his agreement. The Flash handed the antidote to Miller, who then nodded to his three colleagues, who picked up Slade in a fireman's hold and carried him off.

Miller addressed Oliver again. "I'm sure Agent Michaels or Director Waller herself will contact you when Slade is secure within ARGUS."

"Thank you."

As the group watched Slade being carried off, they all breathed easier.

Sara said, "Well, I think we can take off now."

"Isn't your father coming to bring these other men to prison?" Felicity asked.

"I suppose we should give them the cure before they do that," Oliver said. Roy, Sara, and Diggle each took three of the cure and left to administer it to all of Slade's unconscious soldiers scattered around the building.

While they were gone, Barry looked at the two remaining Team Arrow members. "Well, if you don't need anything more from me, I better get back to Central City. I got some things left to do there…"

Since it was just them in the room, Oliver avoided using code names. "Thanks again, Barry. And thank Cisco and Caitlin for their assistance."

"You bet. And you can be sure we'll make some more of the antidote and keep it handy. As well as doses of mirakuru. You know, just in case." He smiled, then was gone in a whirl of red and yellow.

By this time, the other members returned from their mission to change Slade's super soldiers back into regular human beings. Just as they approached the group, Lyla and three men in suits burst into the room and rushed over to them.

Lyla first sought out Dig and gave him a hurried nod and smile, then looked at Oliver. "Sorry, Oliver, I don't know why it happened, but we were delayed by a strange road block thirty minutes from here. But we're here now. So, where's Slade?"

Felicity's heart fell to her feet. Then she began to hyperventilate as she realized truly what Lyla was saying. Over the increasing grayness covering her vision a voice in her ear told her to breathe slowly, to concentrate on his voice. It took a few minutes of focusing on her breathing to realize the voice was Oliver's'. Queen to the rescue. Again. Her hero.

"What's wrong?" Lyla asked Diggle.

Diggle explained how supposedly ARGUS agents had been there already and left with Slade. Lyla only looked at Diggle and turned to the men with her, issuing orders. They ran out as Team Arrow watched.

"You know, they could catch them," Roy offered, not able to bear the heartbroken and scared look on Felicity's face.

Sara rolled her eyes at him. "I guess we can hope. We should have known."

"How could we? That badge was an authentic ARGUS badge. I should have asked to see badges from all of them," Oliver sighed. "They probably stole one badge somewhere."

Felicity's knees began to crumble under her, so Oliver gently led her to the ground, and sat down beside her. "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it," she repeated to herself, eyes unfocused, staring into nothingness.

Oliver squeezed her gently in a hug. "We'll get him again. We will, Felicity." He stroked her hair slowly, willing her to calm down. However, his eyes were stone cold with anger and his lips were pressed in such a tight line they almost disappeared as he struggled not to show his own anger and frustration.

Her breath increasing once again, Felicity could only stare wild-eyed at Oliver. "Are you sure? He still has the mirakuru within him. You know they just…we just gave someone a sample of the cure, and they wouldn't give it to him. What are they going to do? They have some of the antidote. They know we have it. We don't have any advantage over them." She covered her face with her hands. "What are we going to do?"

"Felicity, you and Roy are our aces in the hole," Oliver whispered in her ear. "You can help us catch Slade. And we will."

Felicity swallowed deeply in an attempt to control the rising bile in her throat. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply for a few moments. Feeling more centered, she said, "Okay. That's right. I wanted to take the cure, but I'm not. Not yet. Not until that man is either dead or in chains. Or six feet under…cement and dirt. Perhaps a mountain. Or else put him in a dark, deep dungeon somewhere. Does ARGUS have one of those? Maybe you can build me one. Maybe Lyla can get Amanda to build one. Maybe…"

"Maybe you should take several more deep breaths," Oliver said gently, as she was beginning to hyperventilate again.

Diggle lowered himself to sit on the floor on the other side of Felicity. "We will _not_ let Slade get you a third time, Felicity."

Felicity turned her tear-filled eyes towards him. "How can you say that? We thought we had it covered the last time."

Oliver gripped the lower part of his face in frustration, rubbed at his chin, and exchanged glances with Dig, who met his gaze with a serious one of his own.

Sara offered gently, "Why don't we head to the lair and start working on who might have grabbed Slade?" Catching Oliver's eye, she said in a lower tone to him, "And maybe give Felicity something to help her relax. Maybe she can take a nap."

Felicity only concentrated on Sara's first statement "We know who took Slade. Isabel must have done it," Felicity said. Suddenly, her demeanor changed. She sat up straighter, her face reddened, and her voice became determined. "If it's the last thing I do, besides put Slade in the ground this time, is to take Isabel by her skinny neck and…"

"Felicity!" Oliver was shocked by the amount of anger Felicity displayed.

Felicity shook herself and looked at her friends with wide, blank eyes, as though she had forgotten where she'd been for a moment. "Oh dear." Exchanging looks with Roy, she said, "I'm beginning to understand more and more what you meant about the flashes of anger."

Roy nodded in understanding. "Yeah, exactly like that, Felicity."

"It just felt like, suddenly, this burst of anger crashed through me and all I wanted was to kill her."

"Yes, sometimes I'm okay, and suddenly something sets me off. That's why I've been so unpredictable since I got injected."

Oliver looked at the two younger people and began to bite his inner cheek. "But Roy, you've been learning how to control that anger, to not act on that impulse." Meeting Roy's look of surprise, Oliver said with a nod, "Yeah, you've been doing good on your anger management, Roy. I've been proud of you."

Roy startled, his awareness focused back on the group instead of only on Felicity. "Uh, yeah, Oliver, I have, haven't I? It was very hard at first, but it does get easier, Felicity."

Oliver smiled at him, sending him a silent thanks for helping to make Felicity feel better. He looked down at the woman in his arms, who had stopped shaking but who also had stopped her angry breathing. "Are you feeling more calm, Felicity?"

Felicity bit her lower lip, then met his gaze. "Yeah, feeling a little better. Yep, Team Arrow will win again. We'll find Slade, and beat him again."

Oliver kissed the top of her head and then assisted her in standing. "Well, as Sara suggested, let's get back to the lair and start working on our plan to go on the offensive against Slade. We've mostly been reacting defensively against him."

"That's because we don't know what he's planning in that crazy mind of his, Ollie," Sara said, her exasperation clearly showing.

Diggle approached her, put his arm around her shoulders. "We'll figure it out, Sara. He's giving us plenty to work on with how his brain works."

Oliver handed Felicity to Roy to accompany her to the car, and he herded the rest of the team out the door in front of him. He looked back at the room where he and Felicity could have been killed. Nothing was left behind to possibly indicate where Slade would go next, however. He sighed and hurried after his team.

 **AN: Well, after ending the last three chapters in cliffhangers, I suppose it's only right in ending this one without one. They sure do get addicting to an author, though.**

 **Hope as we enter this second part of the story, it holds up to the promise to the first part. I had held onto the previous battle almost since the beginning of writing this story, so now…gotta write more. Hope you are enjoying it, and I sure hope you will write a review and let me know what you like about it. Always, always appreciated.**

 **Yeah, some of you expressed sadness about Felicity not being affected by the mirakuru anymore. I felt bad and sad about her losing that so soon as well…so…that's why Slade escaped without getting the antidote. So she'd have a reason to keep it. Ha. My muse keeps me guessing. She's forever changing this story on me, ha. But that's what makes writing so much fun! Bye for now.**


	13. Chapter 13: Time for Regrouping

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews, follows and favs! So glad you are enjoying this story. I think this might be one of my most favorite I've written. Anyhow, thanks for returning, and here's the next chapter.**

Previously:

 _Oliver kissed the top of her head and then assisted her in standing. "Well, as Sara suggested, let's get back to the lair and start working on our plan to go on the offensive against Slade. We've mostly been reacting defensively against him."_

 _"_ _That's because we don't know what he's planning in that crazy mind of his, Ollie," Sara said, her exasperation clearly showing._

 _Diggle approached her, put his arm around her shoulders. "We'll figure it out, Sara. He's giving us plenty to work on with how his brain works."_

 _Oliver handed Felicity to Roy to accompany her to the car, and he herded the rest of the team out the door in front of him. He looked back at the room where he and Felicity could have been killed. Nothing was left behind to possibly indicate where Slade would go next, however. He sighed and hurried after his team._

To her surprise, Felicity fell asleep during the trip back to the Lair. She woke as soon as she subconsciously felt herself being picked up.

"Whoa!" Oliver cried as she struggled to get out of his arms. "It's me. We're at the Lair, and I was just carrying you in."

Felicity blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Oliver. I…"

"I know, Felicity, I know." Oliver said quickly. "It's okay."

"I can walk there," Felicity said. Oliver offered his hand and assisted her out of the car. She steadied herself and then began to walk with Oliver into the Lair.

The others were already in the Lair. Sara had taken Felicity's seat in front of the computers, her hands already flying across the keyboard. She looked up, giving Felicity a smile. "I had some thoughts on the ride here, so I thought I'd start some searches, etc. Okay?"

Felicity struggled to smile, and nodded at the other blonde. She reminded herself Sara wasn't replacing her, only helping the team out. Felicity felt too tired at the moment to look at a monitor any way, which was something of an oddity. She shook herself at her silliness and fumbled her way to the couch on the side of the Lair. Without realizing it, she sighed deeply as she sank into its cushions.

"Would you rather go home, Felicity?" Oliver asked. "I should have thought of that first."

Suddenly Felicity didn't want to be by herself, or in her apartment either. The lair…she still felt the safest here. Despite everything. Despite Slade and his terrible acts. "No, I…it's okay."

Oliver went to one of the storage bins, pulled out a blanket and pillow and walked over to Felicity. Placing the pillow at the end of the couch, he said, "Why don't you lie down and rest? We will all be here if you need anything."

She nodded and allowed Oliver to cover her with the blanket as she laid down on the couch. As Oliver walked back to his arrowheads, Felicity thankfully sank into the comfort of the pillow and the blanket covering her. Diggle walked over to Oliver and whispered something. Oliver nodded, and the two men walked over to the workout area. Roy leaned over Sara, apparently asking her a question. Sara checked the computer screen, nodded, and they both walked over to the workout area as well.

Felicity heard Sara tell the other two men, "I got the computers running different facial recognition scans, looking for Slade and Isabel. I also got one running down possible hiding places they may be at. I can work out while they scan."

Felicity fell into a comfortable half-sleep state watching the four of them work out, as well as being comforted by the steady beat of the bo-staffs they were sparring with. She always enjoyed watching them spar. It was almost like some sort of organized ballet, watching their well-toned bodies interact with each other. She soon fell asleep.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Felicity slept for several hours, waking up to the gentle shaking of her shoulder and the soft calling of her name. She opened her eyes to see the beautiful blue of Oliver's eyes looking down at her with concern.

"Felicity, are you hungry? We ordered Chinese for supper. It's here."

Felicity smiled at him and allowed him to assist her into a sitting position. She rubbed her eyes, feeling like a child waking up from a nap, and looked around. Everyone else was sitting at the table, the food beside them. She got up and Oliver led her to a chair, and took the empty one beside her.

A comfortable silence filled the Lair as they proceeded to eat. Until Roy decided to break it.

"Did you sleep okay, Felicity? You look rested."

She smiled at the young man. "Yeah, thanks. I didn't get a very comfortable sleep the night before, I guess, even though I was knocked out. My body felt like I had slept in the chair all night. Which I probably did." She took a bite of her chicken and broccoli.

Looking at her friends, she wondered if she could talk about her experience. As if reading her thoughts, which she was sure she hadn't voiced, Sara asked, "How are you doing, Felicity? With what happened with Slade, does it feel all your work with your counselors over the past week has been undone?"

Felicity considered her question. She never thought Sara could be so perceptive as she had shown to be over the past few weeks. "Yeah, kind of. I guess it shows how much more healing I have left. I sure had the anxiety attack when I first woke up to find myself in Slade's clutches once again. And then he leaned over me again…I…I…." Even though her body threatened to start hyperventilating, she fought to control it.

Oliver quickly said, "You don't have to talk about it, especially during supper, Felicity."

Felicity cleared her throat and shook herself out of the memory and successfully calmed herself. "I'm okay. But I guess it shows I still have to work at putting those calming techniques into practice."

Diggle caught her eye. "It isn't easy learning those coping skills, Felicity. It does take practice to use them almost automatically."

Felicity smiled at him in gratitude for his perceptive observation as well. "Yeah, I gotta keep reminding myself of that. Hopefully Slade will quit giving me reasons to practice them."

Instead of making the atmosphere less tense by her joke, it only reminded everyone how Slade had escaped them. Felicity mumbled an apology. "I'm sorry, guys, I feel like it's my fault. Maybe if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have been misled by the fake ARGUS agents."

Sara shook her head. "Now you're being just as stupid in your self-blame as this lunkhead," she said, elbowing Oliver, who gave a small yelp in surprise, almost knocking his plate out of his hand. "Why would you think it's your fault? Just because Slade thought it was a good idea to inject you with Mirakuru?"

"Sara's right," Oliver agreed. "It isn't your fault. And I really don't think we should blame ourselves, me included, that we were fooled. Like I said, it was a real ARGUS badge they showed me. I just didn't think about asking to see badges from the rest of the so-called agents."

Wondering if he should ask, but he wanted to know the answer to his question, Oliver asked, "What made you stop trying to kill me back there, Felicity? Or were you only pretending to be on Slade's side all the time?"

A faint blush covered Felicity's cheeks as she attempted to find the words to answer him. "No, it was so strange. All I could feel was this…this anger flowing through me. At first it was directed towards Slade, I suppose at that point it was because he was the first person I saw. Then, when he directed my attention to you, I focused my anger on you.

"Here I was, the only thing I could hear was the voice in my head telling me to kill you, because…" Felicity felt her face redden even more, "because of all that you'd done to me." Felicity could feel the beginning of a ramble beginning but decided to go with it. "I mean, I know it was the mirakuru in me, but all I could think about was how supposedly you had changed my life for the worse by including me in your mission, using my attraction to you to your advantage, flirting with every woman in the world but me. I really wanted to kill you, Oliver. It was freeing and scary and empowering all at the same time."

"What snapped you out of it?" Roy asked.

"It was…weird." Looking into Oliver's eyes, she said, "Your comments finally sunk through my angry brain and I just stopped when I realized I was actually beating you to death. I quickly realized what was happening, and that I couldn't let Slade figure out I was 'myself' again."

"Well, you did pull it off. I was fooled when you said you were tired of beating me up today and will continue to do so tomorrow," Oliver said, smiling. "You took me by surprise how you were able to get Slade into a head lock and break his neck."

Felicity sat up a little straighter in her chair. "Yeah, it takes me by surprise when I think about it as well."

Sara looked at Felicity with pride. "I knew we should've been training you sooner." She shot Oliver a look. "Explain again why you never trained her in self-defense, Oliver?"

Felicity watched in interest as Oliver's face turned a little pink. "Um, well, I…."

Diggle came to his rescue. "He thought I'd do better at teaching her, but it's been tough working it in with everything else going on."

Sara shook her head, looked down at her Chinese container and grabbed a particular piece of shrimp. She popped it into her mouth, looked at Oliver and Diggle, and said, "Yeah, I bet."

Roy had seemingly not caught on to the underlying tension going on, finished his food, and looked around. "Boy, sometimes another bad side of the mirakuru is the appetite. Anyone else still hungry?"

Everyone groaned, but Felicity was happy that once again Roy had provided some comic relief, even if it was unintended.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

 _Miller reached his open hand towards the Flash. "We'll take it and administer it after he wakes up and we have him secure on the premises."_

 _The Flash looked at Oliver, who nodded his agreement. The Flash handed the antidote to Miller, who then nodded to his three colleagues, who picked up Slade in a fireman's hold and carried him off._

 _As the group watched Slade being carried off, they all breathed easier._

After leaving the warehouse, the four fake ARGUS agents had rushed to a van behind the building. The side door opened for them, and the three agents quickly deposited Slade in the back and climbed in after him. The man calling himself Miller got into the passenger seat. As soon as they were barely in the van, and the door closed, the van took off. They sped through the streets of Starling to a nondescript house in the northern part of Starling and pulled into the garage. After the garage door closed, they all got out.

They proceeded to the living room, where the three men deposited Slade on the couch. Isabel Rochev approached Slade with a syringe and injected an antidote for the venom into his arm. She took a seat in an arm chair across from the couch to wait as the antidote slowly made its way through Slade's system over the next five minutes.

Isabel watched as Slade's eyes opened. They focused on her and she could almost see his mind work to sort out the details. She jumped as he went from the lying to sitting position in only a few seconds' time.

"What the hell happened?" Slade's low baritone growled.

"You screwed up," Isabel said.

Slade looked around. "Why are we here?"

"We had nowhere else to go. The entire Arrow gang now knows about our warehouse hideout in the Glades. We had to come here." Isabel sneered at him. "Your mind is obviously still affected by the viper venom."

"I'm too busy controlling my impulse to strangle you for not telling me before now what happened."

"Because you insisted on your obsession with that useless secretary Smoak, she got the better hand and beat you unconscious. She would've killed you but your enemy stopped her."

Slade thought it over. "You mean _Oliver_ stopped her?" He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing. "I don't believe it. The kid had a chance to get rid of me and he didn't?"

"Believe it. I can't believe it myself, but it happened. We are now at square one again. Both Queen and Felicity are still alive."

Slade growled. He got up and began to pace. "You know I thought I'd end Oliver Queen today, using his own love to kill him."

"I never thought that was a smart idea to begin with."

Suddenly, Isabel was struggling for breath because Slade had his huge hands around her throat, pushing her up against the wall. Finding herself floundering mid-air, with her feet flailing uselessly, Isabel attempted to calm her partner. But before she could say something, he continued.

"You keep forgetting yourself, Ms. Rochev. I am in charge of this operation. I bankrolled your operation. I could as easily remove you from your new position as I did in putting you there in the first place."

"Sorry. Slade, I…I…" He released her and she sat down heavily on the chair. She rubbed her throat. Making her eyes communicate penitence, Isabel hoped he'd believe her. "I'm sorry, Slade. I just wanted this part of the plan to be completed as soon as possible."

"Yes, I'm fully aware how you feel about Ms. Smoak, even though it escapes me why you allowed such a flighty girl to get to you. However, that is your concern. My concern with her is only using her to bring the utmost misery to Oliver Queen before I put an arrow into his eye."

"You keep threatening to do that. So, when are you going to make that happen?"

A low growl escaped Slade before he replied. Isabel moved slightly away from him as he replied. "As we've discussed, I wanted to do that today. However, it didn't go as planned. We now must come up with something else to drive Oliver even further into despair."

"Please don't get angry, Slade, because I simply want to understand. Why not just kill them? Even a cat gets tired of playing with its food eventually and kills the mouse."

"Oh, Isabel, have you not been enjoying getting your revenge on your former lover's son? I thought that was the reason for your agreeing to this entire operation in the first place."

"True, watching Oliver suffer has been an extremely satisfying experience. Plus, kicking him out of _my_ building was especially gratifying. However, we do have bigger goals, such as the destruction of Starling itself. Blood has been waiting for his orders to proceed."

"That man! He has been another annoying little gnat. If we hadn't set him up to be such an integral part of the plan, I'd have gotten rid of him weeks ago."

"Well, if you will stop playing games with Queen, we could progress with our plans for Blood. The sooner we do that, the sooner you can get rid of Blood."

Slade once again sat down on the couch. He leaned back, crossed his legs and stroked his chin. After a moment, he said, "I suppose you are correct. Even though I would love to continue torturing Oliver, the sooner we complete this next phase, the quicker we are rid of that Blood." Indicating the place next to him, he said to Isabel, "Should we begin discussing the next phase then, Isabel?"

Isabel couldn't help her huge smile as she sat down next to her partner.

 **AN: I debated about adding Slade and Isabel's POV at this point, but thought it was about time we saw some of what they're up to. Well…at least see how Slade was doing after his rescue, at least. Ha.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always, I hope you make me happy and let me know what you think. Always, always appreciated.**


	14. Chapter 14: Changes on the Family Front

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Sorry this took longer than usual. My muse apparently was tired after all that burst of energy before Christmas. Not much happening with new ideas either, sigh, so I had to actually work on this chapter. Ha.**

Previously:

 _Diggle came to his rescue. "He thought I'd do better at teaching her, but it's been tough working it in with everything else going on."_

 _Sara shook her head, looked down at her Chinese container and grabbed a particular piece of shrimp. She popped it into her mouth, looked at Oliver and Diggle, and said, "Yeah, I bet."_

 _Roy had seemingly not caught on to the underlying tension going on, finished his food, and looked around. "Boy, sometimes another bad side of the mirakuru is the appetite. Anyone else still hungry?"_

 _Everyone groaned, but Felicity was happy that once again Roy had provided some comic relief, even if it was unintended._

Everyone else finished their supper while Roy went scavenging for candy bars in Felicity's desk drawer, with her permission of course. Felicity looked up and caught Oliver looking at her with an expression on his face she couldn't read.

"What's wrong, Oliver?"

He shook his head, as if he hadn't realized he had been staring at her. "Um, I was just thinking. I owe you an apology for not following Dig's advice and teaching you self-defense tactics. I…"

"It's okay," Felicity quickly interrupted. "I suppose you thought I wouldn't be able to handle it, or do it, because I'm so clumsy, all the time. Constantly. And with my word babble as well, I suppose why would I be sent out in the field anyway, I suppose…."

She stopped as Oliver placed a hand on each of her upper arms and looked down at her. Feeling drawn into those blue depths again, Felicity stopped talking as she lost her train of thought.

"No, that isn't it. It's…it's because I care for you too much to risk you getting hurt. So, I wanted to keep you as far away from getting hurt as possible. I never thought you couldn't learn fighting techniques."

"Well, even I admit I've never been very athletic, and I…"

"Felicity, that's beside the point. Everyone should learn at least simple self-defense techniques, to keep them safe. We'll talk more about this later. I…I just wanted to let you know I'm sorry and why I hadn't done it before."

Felicity nodded, and gave him a small smile which was interrupted with a yawn. Oliver smiled in return and turned to catch Dig's eye. "It looks like it's getting late. We probably should all head home and get some rest. We'll start fresh tomorrow trying to come up with ways to track Slade down once again."

Dig turned to Felicity. "We all were talking, while you were napping, how we should all stay at Oliver's for the next few days, at least. Since it looks like Slade is going to continue coming after all of us, we should be better protected."

Felicity looked at Oliver, who was shuffling his feet. "Well, normally of course I would argue with you. However, being kidnapped by the dude for the second time in as many weeks has gotten me more than a little spooked. And tired of being afraid. So, yeah, I agree. Let's go now, if you don't mind, for I am so tired. I might just fall asleep on my feet."

Everyone laughed, and they picked up their belongings to leave. Oliver took a look around the lair, and told himself there was always tomorrow to think up a better plan to get Slade.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Upon arriving at the mansion, the first thing Oliver did was round up Thea to enlist her help. Promising he would explain "everything" later, he asked her to assist in finding rooms for everyone. Oliver knew it took every ounce of will power his sister possessed not to ask more question, but for once she firmly pressed her lips together, nodded, then turned to the group of arrivals.

Oliver, on his part, pulled his mother aside into the small room which had served as her office in the past. Looking down her nose at her son, Moira said, "I assume you have a very good reason for having the size of slumber party you haven't had since you were ten?"

Oliver scratched his left temple, wondering where he was to begin. How much to tell her? Would she believe him if he told her everything? Would she believe him if he didn't?

"Well?" his mother's cultured tones interrupted his thoughts.

"I know you may have questions I can't answer at the moment, but I need you to stay away from Slade Wilson."

"Slade Wilson? All I know was you were very rude to him the night you met him, but…"

"That wasn't the night I met him."

"What?"

"He and I met while I was on the island."

Moira sat back in her chair, bestowing a searching look upon her son. "You said you were alone on the island."

"I lied."

"Why?"

"Because at the time I couldn't bear the multitude of questions it would've brought up. Many of which I couldn't answer, for everyone's safety."

"That is a rather vague answer, Oliver."

"Eventually you will know all, just not right now. Just know that Slade and I started out as friends who ended up as enemies because he believes I caused the death of the woman he loved."

"Woman? Death? Oliver…."

"See, this is why I never brought up anything about my years away. There is a lot I cannot discuss at the moment. Just know, Slade is out for revenge against me and all I love. He already has attacked Felicity, Laurel and Mr. Lance. I don't want anything to happen to you or Thea."

"Oliver! What types of things…."

"I don't know. Return his contribution, cut off all ties with him. Proceed with the mayoral campaign. But be careful. Diggle will help me increase security around you and Thea."

"And your friends are here…."

Oliver cleared his throat and combed his hand through his hair. "He almost killed me and Felicity today. So, I feel more comfortable having my friends here so we can all be safe. At least for tonight. Tomorrow we'll examine other options, but tonight, we're just too tired. _I_ am too tired to think, so…that's why they're here."

Moira stood up, taking up the role as perfect hostess as if it was a coat she slipped on. "I understand, Oliver. Thank you for telling me. I trust you will be able to fill in the rest of the details at a later time?"

"Yes, Mother."

"I'll go check on Thea, then, and make sure the arrangements she made are acceptable. Who all are here, then?"

"Diggle, Sara, Felicity and Roy."

"Roy? Thea's Roy? I don't know…."

"I took care of it, Mom. I warned him to behave while staying here."

Moira nodded, then left the room. Oliver leaned over his knees, resting his elbows on his upper legs and placed his head into his hands. Blowing out a cleansing breath, he told himself the conversation went better than he had thought it would. However, knowing his mother, he knew he could expect a more in-depth grilling from her sometime in the near future. Hopefully, such a conversation would take place after this was all over, but he wouldn't bet on it.

After he verified that everyone was settled into various room, and had checked out the security arrangements with Diggle's help, Oliver sank into his bed. He was so very tired, but he had no doubt the nightmares would visit soon after he fell asleep. Like they did most every night. They hadn't been nearly so bad the first year back from the island, but since he had learned what Slade had done to Felicity, the nightmares had increased.

Knowing he needed rest, Oliver began a meditation he had learned in Hong Kong. Soon he had fallen asleep. Perhaps because of being abnormally tired, he slept most of the night. However, after he had one of the worst nightmares ever, he sat straight up in bed, barely controlling the inner turmoil he was still feeling. Attempting to slow down his erratic breathing, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his forearm.

Leaning across the bed, he grabbed his wristwatch to see it was 4 am. Knowing he wasn't going to fall back asleep, he got up and did a double round of calisthenics. Even though it was still early, he decided to go for a long jog before he woke up anyone else.

By the time he had returned and showered, everyone else was in the dining room eating breakfast. Since it was Sunday, Oliver told everyone else to stay at the mansion and rest. He, however, was heading to the Lair for some exercise. Diggle objected at first, thinking he needed someone to watch his back. However, Oliver pulled him over and asked him to stay to keep an eye on his family and Felicity. "I'll be all right, but I worry about them. You understand, don't you, Dig?"

Dig nodded. "Just for today."

Traffic was light in the city for the day, and so it was a quiet ride on the bike. Oliver was thankful for the respite, so he could think of something other than revenge, fighting, and hatred.

He had been there an hour, punching the dummy when a familiar voice floated down to him.

"Oliver, Oliver! Are you down there? Can I come down?"

Oliver rushed up the stairs to meet Laurel halfway. "Um, hi Laurel. What are you doing here?" He was surprised she had memorized the code and gotten down here on her own. He was also disappointed in himself for not hearing the keypad going off. _Not good, Queen. You need to be always vigilant._

"Well, I haven't heard from you. So…I decided to come see you." She walked down the rest of the stairway, with Oliver following her.

"Um, well, things have been pretty crazy here…."

"I thought we were going to talk over how I could help you out around here."

Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose. He surely didn't need Laurel complicating things right now, not with Slade threatening everyone in his life. Especially Felicity.

Oliver grabbed his towel and wiped the sweat from his face and wiped his hands dry before he threw it on the table. He gently took Laurel's upper arm and guided her to one of the office chairs. After sitting down next to her, he said, "It was kind of an awkward time to discuss such a thing, Laurel. That's why I couldn't be more specific as to when we'd talk about this."

"What? You mean, you really don't want my help?" Looking around, she said, "I can see so much I can help you with, Ollie."

"This isn't a game, Laurel. Especially now, with Slade gunning for everyone I care about. I'd think, with your close call the other night, you'd run in the opposite direction. Away from me and all of this."

Laurel shuffled in her chair, a small pout on her face. "Well, I was scared, but it…it was kind of exciting too. After the fact. And after I dealt with the anger you didn't trust me before this with your secret."

"Trusting you has nothing to do with this whatsoever. It's just…I care about you too much to involve you in this. Carrying the burden of keeping my secret? I didn't want that for you. Especially with your father. I didn't want you to have to hide a secret from him, or to lie for me."

Laurel considered what he said, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I did consider all of that, after I cooled down." Tying to implement humor, she added, "And besides, now that my father knows, it's one less thing to worry about, at least, isn't it?"

Oliver prevented doing an eye roll by closing his eyes briefly. Opening them again, he said, "Laurel, I do want to think seriously about your offer to help. I really do. But…not now. Not until we catch Slade."

"I could help you catch him. I want to make him suffer for what he has been doing to all of you." Taking his hand in hers, she said, "I heard about the company. Is that also related to Slade?"

Surprised by her awareness, Oliver nodded. "Yeah, how did you guess?"

"Well, from what you said about Slade, it led me to wonder if he has wider ideas for revenge against you. So…Isabel is in cahoots with him?"

Oliver nodded.

"I guess it explains why you weren't able to charm her into liking you then?" Laurel teased. Oliver rolled his eyes, and she said, "You know, you used to be able to sweep any woman you wanted off her feet."

"Yeah, being stuck on a deserted island kinda put that skill out of practice."

Laurel raised an eyebrow at him. "Somehow I haven't seen it existing any less since you've been back." Oliver wondered what was behind such a statement, but chose not to respond.

Reaching for his hand, Laurel lightly held it in between her own hands. She let out a sigh, and said, "I want to apologize for my behavior over the past year. I…."

"You don't have to, Laurel. It's perfectly understandable, given what I did. I'm simply happy you've forgiven me now."

"Yeah, that's just it, Ollie. I _have_ forgiven you. And…I know we had decided not to be a couple, but I…I've changed my mind. Especially with this new info I know about you. You suddenly make a whole lot more sense now. And I see things much more clearly." Clearing her throat, she added, "I see _you_ much more clearly."

Oliver looked deeply into her eyes. "I don't want to hurt you Laurel. I will always love you. You've always been a large part of my life. But I'm no longer in love with you."

"But when you returned from the island, you said…."

"I know. And…that last night together was magical. But…it isn't us. Not anymore. You deserve so much better than me."

"But Felicity doesn't?" Laurel didn't hide the bitterness she was apparently feeling.

Slightly taken aback by her guess of who now had his heart, Oliver tried to hold onto her hand as Laurel roughly pulled away from him. "I can't explain it, Laurel. Actually, she deserves so much better than me as well. But…you and I, Laurel, both of us have changed too much to be together anymore. Like I say, I'll always love you, and will always need you as a friend, but…you're right. I _am_ in love with Felicity. I have been, for some time now."

Laurel reached out and cupped Oliver's cheek. "Part of me wants to slap you, but part of me understands. I've seen how you act around her. And…as much as I hate to admit it, you never looked at me in quite the same way as you look at her."

"I'm sorry, Laurel."

Laurel stood up and picked up her purse. "I am too." Straightening her shoulders, she said, "Perhaps you're right. Maybe we can work out something for me to help you with…at a later date. I…maybe I _do_ need some time to digest all of this after all."

Oliver looked Laurel in the eye, almost as if asking for permission, and leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead. "I'll call you. I will. And…if there is something you can help us, Arrow-wise, with Slade…I _will_ ask. If that's all right."

Laurel nodded, her eyes suddenly bright. She turned quickly and rushed back up the stairs and out of the door. Oliver combed his fingers through his hair and resumed to beating the dummy a few more rounds.

 **AN: Even though this was more of a filler chapter than an action one. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, especially Oliver and his mother interacting, and tune it to the next chapter. And we will again return to see how Felicity is dealing with all of this.**


	15. Chapter 15: The Morning After

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: I have not done much writing since mid-February. My father suddenly become ill and we lost him the first week of March. My heart has gone with him. Someday, God willing, I will write and publish a book dedicated to him as well. Until then, I dedicate this chapter with all my love to the best man I've ever known, my father. I love you, Dad, and God willing, I will indeed write a book about you someday like you asked me to.**

 **Besides that, I do thank all of you for returning to this story. Like most of my stories, it has taken a few twists and turns from my original thoughts. All good stories do, I suppose. (At least for us writers who write without an outline, ha!) Anyway, this chapter continues to have more fluff than action I suppose. Hope you enjoy.**

Previously:

 _Felicity looked at Oliver, who was shuffling his feet. "Well, normally of course I would argue with you. However, being kidnapped by the dude for the second time in as many weeks has gotten me more than a little spooked. And tired of being afraid. So, yeah, I agree. Let's go now, if you don't mind, for I am so tired. I might just fall asleep on my feet."_

 _Everyone laughed, and they picked up their belongings to leave. Oliver took a look around the lair, and told himself there was always tomorrow to think up a better plan to get Slade._

The night before, as she got ready for bed and climbed into a borrowed pajama set of Thea's, Felicity could hardly stand without falling over. She did look at her body, seeing several bruises from the fight with Slade. She shook her head, figuring she will probably be sore tomorrow. Even with the mirakuru. Mirakuru. Talk about strange. How did her life get to resembling one of her sci-fi shows after all?

Climbing in between the 1000 thread sheets, Felicity let out a contented sigh as her head hit the goose-feather pillow on the queen-sized bed in the guest room Thea had shown her. She wanted to reflect on everything that had occurred that day, but her body and mind had other ideas. The next thing Felicity knew, she felt the morning sun on her face.

Stretching out between the luxurious sheets Felicity let the comfort sink into her bones. Then yesterday's events rushed into her mind. All of them. And she groaned. Reluctantly, she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She rubbed her eyes, and looked for her glasses. Luckily, even though she was so tired she didn't know what she was doing, she did put her glasses on the side table next to the bed. Putting them on, she allowed her eyes to roam lazily around the room. It was a very nice room indeed, simply but tastefully furnished with a dark oak dresser and bookshelves to match the frame and head board of the bed.

Instead of being able to continue to ruminate in her thoughts, a knock on the door interrupted her. Upon her assent, the door opened to reveal Dig. "Hey, how you doing? Did you sleep good?"

"Like a water-soaked log. What time is it?"

"Nine o'clock. Everyone else is downstairs already. Well, except for Oliver. He's out jogging."

"Of course." Felicity's lip curled. "Well, let me grab…oh, but I don't have a robe."

"I'll let you change, and meet you downstairs."

Felicity nodded absentmindedly as she wondered what she was going to wear. Noticing something in the closet through the half-opened door, she walked over to it and opened the door wider. Inside were hanging a cute top and a pair of skinny jeans. Felicity shook her head. Thea must have snuck them in while she was sleeping. She grabbed the clothes, walked over to the bed, and proceeded to get dressed.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

 _By the time he had returned and showered, everyone else was in the dining room eating breakfast. Since it was Sunday, Oliver told everyone else to stay at the mansion and rest. He, however, was heading to the Lair for some exercise. Diggle objected at first, thinking he needed someone to watch his back. However, Oliver pulled him over and asked him to stay to keep an eye on his family and Felicity. "I'll be all right, but I worry about them. You understand, don't you, Dig?"_

Diggle watched as the younger man left. He simply shook his head at the gall of Oliver, leaving him here to deal with his family _and_ his team alone. However, Digg knew the events yesterday had indeed taken a toll on Oliver. Telling himself Oliver would be better able to handle everything once he had a decent work-out, swallowing his irritation, Dig turned to face the others in the dining room once again.

"Oliver didn't give us a chance to ask him anything, did he?" Sara asked.

Dig shrugged. "You know him. He needs a work-out to clear his mind. He'll be in better spirits when he returns."

"Better than what?" Roy asked. "He's always grumpy."

Felicity hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Double-dare you say that in his presence."

"Ha," Roy said, making a face at her. "I'm not afraid of him."

"Oh, I beg to differ, Junior." Digg winked at Felicity.

Their teasing was interrupted by a new voice. "Perhaps someone would kindly tell me where my son went off to?"

Everyone at the table startled upon hearing the frosty tones of the matriarch of the Queen family and turned to watch Moira approach them. Entering the room while maintaining her impeccable posture, she sternly looked at each one of them while waiting for an answer. Roy looked down at his plate, Sara calmly took a bite of a piece of bacon, while Felicity nervously placed her hands in her lap. This left Dig to be the one to speak up.

"Mrs. Queen, your son decided he needed to get some fresh air, so he went to a new gym he recently joined. He will return within a few hours. Is there something I can do for you?"

Moira's lips drew into a thin line as she considered the man in front of her. She then looked at the others with an unreadable look on her face as she considered each of them in turn.

"How could he leave when he has company? I apologize for his rudeness."

Sara smiled at her, calling upon their familiarity to soothe Moira's anger. "Oh, you know Oliver, Mrs. Queen. We also know him as well. It's okay, we understand. He's been under much stress lately."

Moira's lips puckered slightly, then relaxed in a tight smile. "I was hoping he would tell me more about that stress today. He had hinted at it last night, but didn't give me much details." Dividing her look equally amongst her guests, she waited for someone to answer her unspoken request for information. A small sniff preceded her next statement. "I will wait for him to return, then. I hope you all will enjoy the breakfast, and make yourself at home until Oliver returns."

Roy at least had the smarts to wait until she had left the room before he remarked, "Boy, is Oliver in trouble once he gets back."

Dig cuffed him on the back of the head. "Boy, sometimes you don't have the brains of a gnat, do you?"

"I waited until she couldn't hear me. And quit doing that."

They proceeded to finish breakfast. Thea arrived after having met a friend for breakfast and was brought up to date regarding her brother's absence and her mother's actions. After everyone was finished with breakfast, Thea brought them into the smaller salon, or TV room as Thea liked to call it. When her mother wasn't around, that is. With encouragement from Dig, Roy asked Thea to go on a walk outside, to provide the rest of the team space for a private talk. Roy could easily be updated later. Thea readily agreed to the walk, having missed her boyfriend during the time she was gone. The two young people left the room hand in hand, Thea excitedly telling Roy about her breakfast.

"Felicity, how are you doing? Do you need to visit the center today, you think?" Sara asked.

"I was considering it, but…part of me is too scared to go. Not knowing what Slade is going to do next, and that he's still out there makes me just want to stay where it's safe."

"Understandable. Maybe, tomorrow."

Felicity nodded. "Yeah, I hope so. The therapy certainly has been helping." In a softer voice she added, "Thanks for caring, Sara. I appreciate it."

"You know, if you ever need to talk, you can talk to me, you know."

Felicity smiled and nodded. "I appreciate it. But, I think today, we should see if we can brainstorm ways in which we can track Slade down and take him down once and for all."

Dig joined the women on the two couches facing each other. "That's a good idea, Felicity," Dig said. "Especially since it appeared to both you and Oliver that what he had planned yesterday was to have been the final 'showdown', so to speak."

"Yeah, that man actually thought I'd kill Oliver. I don't think I ever could…well, I guess I _almost_ did, but then I realized what I was doing…on second thought, perhaps I could kill Oliver after all. Boy, that's scary. Thank God I came to my senses before I could hurt Oliver anymore. But…yeah, me killing Oliver…was to have happened."

"You didn't hear anything about their other plans at all, did you? Even if you were half-conscious, or anything?" Dig asked Felicity.

"No, well, I didn't see Isabel at all, so there goes that idea about them discussing things in front of me. Slade didn't brag about anything to me. But I was mostly unconscious most of the time between Slade injecting me and Oliver showing up."

"Hopefully, this really screws up Slade's plans, whatever they are. But we should try to figure them out. I'm so tired of always being on the defensive. We need to get him once and for all." Sara punched her fist into her other hand to make her point. Looking at Dig, she asked, "Why did you let Oliver go to the Lair alone? We should all be here planning."

Dig cocked an eyebrow at the petite blond. " _Let_? I hardly ever _let_ that boy do anything. I choose my battles carefully. Today, I thought perhaps he needed some time on his own to process his feelings about yesterday. Despite the years since, he's still the man who supposedly spent all that time on the island. Alone."

Sara curled her lip. "I think by now, we both have spilled enough for you to know we were surrounded by people more than we were alone, Dig."

The man sighed. "Yeah, I know." He combed both of his hands through his hair. "But he still needs alone time to process his deeper feelings. I don't think he will ever break that habit."

Everyone in the room nodded their agreement. A silence fell upon them while they were lost in their own thoughts. After a moment, Dig decided to begin the discussion of what to do about Slade.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

 _"_ _Well, if you will stop playing games with Queen, we could progress with our plans for Blood. The sooner we do that, the sooner you can get rid of Blood."_

 _Slade once again sat down on the couch. He leaned back, crossed his legs and stroked his chin. After a moment, he said, "I suppose you are correct. Even though I would love to continue torturing Oliver, the sooner we complete this next phase, the quicker we are rid of that Blood." Indicating the place next to him, he said to Isabel, "Should we begin discussing the next phase then, Isabel?"_

 _Isabel couldn't help her huge smile as she sat down next to her partner._

Isabel confirmed that another thirty soldiers had been given the Mirakuru over the past week through the equipment available at the Queen Applied Sciences building. "That stupid Queen and Smoak never thought one reason for me obtaining the company was to transform soldiers."

"As I keep reminding you, Isabel, Oliver may not always be the smartest man you know, but he does have his moments. Do not become lax about keeping him fooled."

"You do have to admit, Slade, he hasn't shown much offensive maneuvering throughout all of this. I thought he'd be a more worthy opponent, from your description of him."

"Like I say, Isabel, don't let his behavior fool you. He does have his moments, especially in crisis moments. So, for our own protection, we need to make sure we don't allow any such thing to occur. That's when the Kid comes through the best, in coming up with ideas at the last moment to 'save the day'. Not to mention his own blind luck at times." Slade sighed. "I've never known someone to have so much blind luck as the Kid has had throughout the time I've known him."

"I don't understand why we have to wait until after the election to bring down Starling City?"

"Because I promised Blood he can be mayor."

"That's another thing. Why does he want to be mayor of a broken city?"

"He believes he could then remake the city in his own image."

"What is wrong with this city that everyone wants to destroy it and remake it? Didn't Malcolm Merlyn want to do that last year?"

"Yes, and the Kid stopped him. But he wouldn't be able to stop us. Not with over 30 soldiers with Mirakuru in their systems creating havoc in his beloved city. And when he feels utmost despair, that's when I'll take his eye."

Isabel didn't respond to Slade's statement. He turned to find her looking into the distance, her eyes unfocused. "What are you thinking, Isabel? I've become well acquainted with that look. What have you come up with now?"

"You know, Slade, if you are so worried about Queen, maybe we should arrange the election to happen sooner."

"How?"

"By taking out Blood's opponent, he would automatically become mayor."

"But that means…."

"We kill Moira Queen. Thus another layer of your revenge upon poor, poor Oliver."

Slade rubbed his chin slowly while considering her suggestion. "Yes, I would love to do that to that supercilious woman. She was such a cold fish. How she ever managed to thaw out enough to conceive two children is beyond me."

Isabel laughed. "Oh, Slade, you can be so droll at times! Yes, Robert did mention that part of his attraction for me was how different I was from her..."

Slade sniffed. "You? You occasionally remind me of Mrs. Queen in your behavior." His smile widened as he watched Isabel's face redden. As she struggled with a reply, he laughed. "Careful now, Isabel. Remember the last time you crossed me. And I am still in charge of this operation."

Isabel let out a heavy sigh. She then straightened out her shoulders and looked her partner directly in the eye. "So, when will we place this new idea into motion?"

Slade shook his head. "Let me think more on it, my dear. Changing the plan too hastily could result in chaos."

 **AN: Another filler chapter, I suppose. But I kinda like Moira's frosty appearance, and further discussion of Slade and Isabel. The plot thickens…and how close will I take this story to canon, after all? Will Moira die, or will I allow her to live? Stay tuned….and thanks for reading!**


	16. Chapter 16: A New Type of Revenge

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thanks for returning! Sorry about the delay, again. Sigh. That silly Muse, she just flits there, and here and everywhere. Kind of like Felicity would do if drunk, I'd like to think. Ha. Thanks for such a great reaction to the last chapter. I appreciate all the kudos, reviews and remarks! Hope you enjoy this chapter, and if you haven't been letting me know what you think or like about this story, I hope you will. Always appreciated!**

 **And, thank you for all the condolences. I appreciate them as well.**

 **Here's the new chapter:**

Previously:

 _With encouragement from Dig, Roy asked Thea to go on a walk outside, to provide the rest of the team space for a private talk. Roy could easily be updated later. Thea readily agreed to the walk, having missed her boyfriend during the time she was gone. The two young people left the room hand in hand, Thea excitedly telling Roy about her breakfast._

Roy's head felt like he had crashed a party, something he hadn't done in months. He couldn't remember what would've made him go to a party, since he's usually too busy working Arrow stuff to be interested in such activities any more. He tried to bring his hand up to his aching head, but something stopped him. A voice, seemingly familiar and too loud for his ears, said, "Hey, about time you woke up, Junior. I was wondering if I gave you too much pit viper venom."

He suddenly remembered whose voice that was, and his eyes shot open. Indeed, standing in front of him, was the man he had met at the Queen mansion almost a month ago. Slade Wilson, the only man Roy knew to put such fear into his mentor, the always stoic Oliver Queen himself. Wilson smiled at him with such a loathsome smile it actually caused Roy to squirm in his seat. Which brought to his awareness the fact his arms were bound behind his back, with what felt like chains. Chains! As he struggled against them, Wilson laughed.

"Don't even bother, Junior. I took advantage of your unconsciousness to administer the antidote to the mirakuru. My colleagues were able to figure out how to produce it from the sample the Kid so generously provided my allies upon rescuing me."

The man was correct. For the first time in months, Roy felt…different. He felt, well, normal. No more anger flashing through his entire body at unpredictable times, needing an outlet. Despite the situation, he felt strangely…calm. As opposed to the continuous nervous energy which had been going through his body nonstop ever since he'd been injected with the Mirakuru.

A moan interrupted his thoughts. He quickly remembered where he'd been. He had been walking outside the Manor with Thea…Thea, who now was also tied to a chair beside him. Apparently unconscious as well, until now.

"Thea! Are you all right?" Roy glared at Slade, who was waiting for the young man's reaction with a small smile on his face. "If you've hurt her…."

"Don't worry, Junior, I haven't." Slade walked several steps across from Roy. "At least, not yet."

Roy watched as Thea struggled against her bonds as she became aware of her surroundings. Her eyes shot open, and finding what she wanted with Roy beside her, asked, "What's going on, Roy?" She turned her head, and jumped slightly as she recognized Slade. "Mr. Wilson? What…why do you have us tied up like this?"

Slade's laughter filled the room, as he raised his head and gave a hearty laugh. He cocked an eyebrow at Roy and asked, "So, Junior, what should I tell her?"

"Roy? Why would he ask you that kind of question?" his intelligent love asked. He watched as, he was sure, a thousand questions flitted across her mind but she wisely didn't ask them.

Even without the mirakuru still raging inside him, Roy felt as though his blood was beginning to boil. Knowing what Slade had done with the Lances, Roy had no doubt Slade couldn't wait to tell Thea Oliver's secret. And his as well. He wasn't looking forward to the argument which would follow once they were home safe. _If_ they got home safe.

"Yes… _Roy_ …should you tell her the truth about her brother, or should I?"

"Why not let both of us go, so I can take my girlfriend somewhere fun to forget all about you?"

Slade slapped him so hard across his face, Roy ended up on the floor, his chair knocked over with the force of Slade's slap. Suddenly Roy felt the chair brought back up, and set down hard enough to jar his body, aggravating the pain in Roy's head.

"Junior, Junior. You should know that is _not_ how this game is going to be played." Walking towards Thea slowly, a smile slowly crossing Slade's face, he said, "Ms. Queen, you may think you know your brother and boyfriend well. However, like so many in your acquaintance, they have been keeping secrets from you."

"What secrets? And is that why you have us here tied up? I thought you were helping my mother with her campaign. What does this have anything to do with us?"

"So many questions, Ms. Queen." Looking at Roy, Slade asked, "Again, Junior, what shall it be?"

"You're actually going to give me a choice?" Roy sat back in a chair, dreading another slap. Or worse. However, Slade simply laughed. "Don't worry, kid, I wouldn't hit you. For that." After a moment, he said, "Yes, why don't you tell her why you've been working with the Arrow all these months."

"I've known that, Mr. Wilson. And I'm proud of him for helping the Arrow." Thea decided to not hide her pride in her boyfriend from this…man who for some reason was trying to terrorize her.

"But I bet you didn't know your own brother was the Arrow, did you?" Slade asked with a smug grin on his face.

Roy watched as color left her face, and she turned to him. "Is that true, Roy? How could you keep that from me?"

"I…I didn't want to, but your brother…."

"Your brother, Ms. Queen, is a good-for-nothing, lying cheat, who doesn't care who he hurts."

Thea struggled against her bonds. "How dare you say that? Why would you? If this is true, if he truly _is_ the Arrow, he has been saving the city all these months. How dare you insult him."

A look of anger flashed on Slade's face. He took several steps towards Thea, prompting her to cowl in her chair away from him and for Roy to yell out, "You leave her alone. Do _not_ touch her, you SOB!"

Slade stopped, pulled himself to his full height, and studied Thea. The anger disappeared from his face. "You do resemble your mother a lot, Ms. Queen. Very interesting indeed. And so very loyal to the miserable thing that is your brother." Slade shook his head. "I wonder if you'd still feel that way knowing all he did while he was gone. The people he murdered, the crimes he committed."

"I trust my brother. I'm sure he only did what he had to do to survive. But…what kind of crimes could he commit on a deserted island?"

Slade's laughter bounced off the walls of the large room they were in. He was about to answer when a phone began to ring. Slade walked over to a table, where Thea noticed her purse and Roy's coat had been placed. Slade opened her purse and pulled out her phone. "Excuse me, Ms. Queen, I will answer your phone since you are…tied up, shall we say." Looking at the caller, Slade again smiled a very satisfied smile. "Speak of the devil. Just as I thought."

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Oliver returned to the Manor from the Lair that afternoon, feeling energized and spent at the same time. Exercising did manage to get out his agitation, but his talk with Laurel had indeed been difficult. Necessary, but difficult. In some ways, it only brought back some of the stress he had tried so hard to burn off. However, he felt he had one less thing to worry about. At least for now. Once Slade had been dealt with, he'd work on fixing his friendship with Laurel. Because, no matter what happens with Felicity, he still needed to maintain his friendship with Laurel. _If_ Laurel would allow it, that is.

Oliver entered the manor and followed the voices he heard, entering the small salon. He was met with most of his team. Quickly looking around, he didn't spot Thea and Roy. He was happy to see Felicity relaxed and sitting on the couch talking with Sara and Diggle.

"There you are. I was just about to leave to see if you were all right," Diggle said.

Looking at the others, Oliver decided to be straightforward with them. "I didn't mean to be gone so long. Laurel surprised me at the lair. We had a talk." As the silence meeting his remarks continued he added, "I told her we weren't getting back together."

Diggle nodded slowly. "Yeah, I was wondering if that was what she was thinking about the other night in the lair."

Oliver's eyes met Felicity's with such a look it took her breath away. Pretending to be interested in the view outside the window, Felicity rose and looked out. For once, activity kept her filter working and she didn't speak what was on her mind. Even though she tried to deny it, she felt Oliver's eyes continuing to be on her.

Shaking his head, as if he had been in a trance, Oliver brought his attention back to his unaddressed concern from before. "Where are Thea and Roy?"

Dig stated, "Well, I suggested he take Thea for a walk on the grounds. I thought there should be nothing wrong since the security system is on, and that way the rest of us to talk freely about Arrow business, but…."

Oliver didn't like the sensation of coldness suddenly moving down his back like a glacier. Something felt wrong. "But what, Dig?"

"I'm sorry, Oliver. I didn't realize the time. They should have returned by now. We were having such a good discussion about what to do about Slade, I didn't realize…."

Oliver ran out of the room, and out of the door past his mother, who was walking down the stairs at that moment. Sara and Diggle quickly followed him, ignoring Moira's questions. Moira stood there, with confusion clearly on her face, as she watched the group rush by her.

Once outside, Oliver scanned the large backyard, taking in the large area quickly while calling out his sister's name. His teammates caught up to him as he stopped his pacing, his hands on his hips, looking into the distance.

"Oliver, why don't we just call them?" Diggle asked.

As Oliver took out his phone, Sara was already dialing Roy's number. She told the two men, "It went directly to voice mail."

Oliver held up his index finger as Thea's phone was answered. "Thea, where are you? I…I need to talk to you about something."

A baritone laugh was the answer he received. Oliver closed his eyes tightly as he recognized the laugh, the glacier which had run down his back landing in his stomach.

"Tsk, tsk, Oliver. What can be so important to disturb your sister's alone time with her boyfriend?"

Trying not to crush the phone with his right hand, Oliver made a tight fist with his left. "If you've hurt them…." His team gathered around him as he put the call on speaker.

"Like I told Junior a few moments ago, I haven't hurt your precious Thea. Yet."

"You better not, Slade, or I will…."

"You will what, Oliver? You couldn't beat me on Lian Yu, you wouldn't be able to beat me now."

"Give me the opportunity and I will show you how wrong you are, Slade. All you do is talk. Let's end this and let's end this soon."

"You don't know what you are proposing, Kid. I had planned to end you yesterday, but your blonde spoiled it."

"Yes, I have intelligent people around me. That is why we'll win this, Slade."

A rough laugh was meant to taunt Oliver, but he swallowed his retort and waited for Slade's reply. "Meet me at the old Wilderness facility out on Bakersville Road. Alone. Tomorrow morning at 9am."

"For what?"

"In exchange for these two young lovers." Slade decided to add, "Remember, Oliver, _alone_. If I see anyone else…."

"Why not now, Slade? What are you going to do?"

"You'll find out. Tomorrow." A dial tone met Oliver's ears.

 **AN: Oh no, not another cliffie! What is Oliver and Team Arrow going to do? Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and return when I post the next one to see what happens next. I appreciate all reviews and comments, and I am happy you all have been reading this story. See you next time!**


	17. Chapter 17: Another Scary Development

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thank you for returning to my story. We shall see how Roy and Thea are doing with Slade. Thank you so very much for all your reviews, comments, and kudos. It really does make a writer work faster. I do apologize for the length of time it took to get this out. Real life problems interfered. However, I did get future chapters worked on as well, so that does help. Hopefully I can post the next chapter even quicker.**

 **Possible Trigger Warning: character having panic attack, possible PTSD symptoms**

Previously:

 _A rough laugh was meant to taunt Oliver, but he swallowed his retort and waited for Slade's reply. "Meet me at the old Wilderness facility out on Bakersville Road. Alone. Tomorrow morning at 9am."_

 _"_ _For what?"_

 _"_ _In exchange for these two young lovers." Slade decided to add, "Remember, Oliver, alone. If I see anyone else…."_

 _"_ _Why not now, Slade? What are you going to do?"_

 _"_ _You will find out. Tomorrow." A dial tone met Oliver's ears._

The team watched as Oliver stood there holding the phone to his ear, staring into space. Only when Diggle repeated his name several times did he shake his head and look at the group watching him in concern.

"He wants me to turn myself over to him tomorrow. Alone. For Roy and Thea."

"Oliver, no way in hell are we allowing you to do that," Diggle said.

"I agree," Felicity said, her face noticeably paler.

Felicity suddenly felt as though she was losing sensation of her body. The thought of poor Thea, with Slade…what if…what if he did to poor Thea what he did to her? She heard the others barely through the buzzing in her ears.

"What _else_ can I do? It's my _sister_ ….and Roy, we can't lose either one of them. And with Roy gone, we are fearfully outnumbered so we can't fight him." Felicity heard Oliver say, his fear for his sister apparent.

"We took Slade out on the island, just the two of us, remember?" Sara asked.

"Well…not really, Sara," Oliver said, looking her in the eye.

Sara shrugged and looked away across the backyard of the estate. "Well, you know what I mean. We do have tonight to sleep on it and come up with a plan."

The mention of Thea being in Slade's control overnight was too much for Felicity to bear. "We can't…we can't leave Thea alone with Slade for the night…." Felicity mumbled to the group, as she began to sway.

Sara, being the closest next to her, grabbed the younger woman by her upper arms to steady her before she could tip over. "Felicity!"

The two men jumped, their awareness suddenly to Felicity.

"Felicity, what's wrong?" Oliver asked as he took ahold of Felicity on her other side, as Diggle ran to bring over one of the garden chairs for her to sit down.

"I…I can't…I can't breathe," Felicity stated as the others watched as she began to hyperventilate.

As Diggle brought the chair behind her, Sara and Oliver led her gently to sit down. Diggle crouched in front of her. Gripping both of her hands in his, he said, "Felicity, you are safe. You are here with us. Can you slow your breathing in time with mine? Come on, honey, breathe in…breath out…breath in…breath out…"

Felicity forced herself to concentrate on the kind man in front of her, pushing away the memories of the Australian violating her. She lost herself in Dig's kind brown eyes and got her breathing under control.

"Felicity," Sara asked gently, "what made you scared?" She crouched on the side of Felicity and gently laid her hand on top of Felicity's, still held by Diggle.

Her right hand gripping Dig's, Felicity looked at Dig, who nodded, and pantomimed breathing slowly. "I am so afraid Slade will...Slade will hurt Thea, like…he did me. The thought of her, with him, all night…." Felicity stifled a sob. Her eyes, as drawn by a magnet, found Oliver's and tears came to her eyes as she watched Oliver's face turn even more pale. "Oh, I am so sorry, Oliver, I know you're worried, and I didn't mean to add to that worry, but..."

Oliver turned away, gripping his hair with both hands. He let out a yell, and turned towards Felicity. "It's all right, Felicity. It is…it is a valid concern. And one, which I am sure, would've occurred to me sooner or later." Catching Dig's eyes, Oliver tried to find some comfort. Dig nodded at the other man.

"Felicity, I'm sure Thea will be all right. Slade wouldn't hurt her, I'm sure. He's only using her and Roy to get to Oliver," Diggle said, attempting to placate Felicity.

Oliver turned his worried eyes onto Felicity, meeting hers straight on. "Felicity, I need you to go to the counseling center tomorrow. You need to discuss all of this with someone."

"But Oliver, you need me…..."

Oliver walked over to her, and took Dig's spot in front of her, Dig having gotten up and moved. He took her hand. "Felicity, I need _you_ to take care of yourself. Okay? I will be fine." As she began to protest, he raised a finger. "No, I _will_ be fine." As a skeptical look stayed on her face, he continued, "What if we come get you _if_ you are needed. Okay? And we will leave you a message on the progress, all right?" When Felicity continued to remain silent, Oliver captured her eyes and softly asked, "Please? For me?"

Felicity nodded. "Yeah, okay. I should have gone today, but, I was too scared to go."

"Understandable, but you need to go tomorrow. We will be okay." Oliver looked at Dig and Sara. "Let's go to the house. Nothing else we can do out here."

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Upon disconnecting the phone, Slade very slowly and methodically placed the phone back in Thea's purse and snapped it shut with a definite flourish. He then turned with a gleam in his eye upon his prisoners. Roy attempted to stare back defiantly at him, but Thea couldn't help a shudder that went through her as his expression took her in.

"I should let you two squirm in your misery wondering what I'm going to do, but the fun of doing that to Oliver is enough for me. I will let you know, I will leave you two alone for the night. But…" Slade walked to the door to call for someone. Thea and Roy watched as two men entered the room and took positions at each side of the door. "These gentlemen will make sure you don't try to run away." Looking at his watch, Slade sighed. "I guess it is time for supper. I do apologize, but I don't have anything fancy for you."

Two more guards entered the room, one carrying two plates each with a turkey sandwich and chips on it as well as two bottles of water. Thea watched in silence as one of the guards cut the rope binding her right hand to the arm of her chair, while the other guard brought her the plate of food, setting it on her lap. He stood at attention watching her as she ate. After she took a bite of her sandwich, she asked if Roy was going to eat.

"After you're done."

Thea looked up at Roy, who gave her a crooked smile and a tilt of his head. He nodded then, as if encouraging her to keep eating. She was torn between eating in a rush so Roy could eat or eating slowly to enjoy her partial freedom as long as she could. The skin of both her wrists were reddened, as well as having several open spots from her attempts to loosen her bonds.

Suddenly the plate was violently taken from her lap, spilling the crumbs of the remaining chips onto her skirt. When she cried out involuntarily, the guard thrust the bottle of water into her hand. "Here, hurry up and drink. Your boyfriend is waiting, and we don't have all day."

"Before you tie me up again, can I use the bathroom?"

The guard sighed heavily. Thea said, "Surely Slade doesn't want to clean up a mess, does he?"

The guard next to Roy said, "Surely you can handle such a tiny girl like her. You take her to the rest room while I watch Pretty Boy eat."

Her guard grunted in reply and cut the rope binding her left hand to the chair. Thea slowly rose, slowly moving her arms and legs to get her circulation flowing again. Her guard grabbed her arm and yanked her towards the door. "Hurry up, girl! We don't have all day."

Thea was about to give the guy a rude reply when she caught Roy's eyes. He shook her head, so she pressed her lips tightly together and allowed the guard to bring her out of the room. The iron grip the guard had on her upper arm indicated there was no room for argument. And no opportunity to try to run away. As if she could escape the huge man beside her. The room she was practically thrown into had no window, just a toilet and sink. Thea sighed in exasperation and hurriedly took advantage of the toilet. As she washed her hands and wrists thoroughly, because of the marks left by the rope, the guard knocked loudly on the door. "What are you doing, taking a bath in there?"

Instead of giving the reply she really wanted, she instead simply said she was almost done. She dried her hands quickly and opened the door, as the guard reached out and grabbed her by the arm again. As he rushed her back to the room, Thea attempted to get a better view of the rest of the building. All she could think of was it appeared to be an old warehouse, and they were being kept in some kind of storeroom. Unluckily, they were in the inner part of the building, away from all windows.

Roy was done eating his sandwich and chips, so his guard untied him. Thea gave him a wry smile when her guard placed his gun against her head, reminding Roy not to try anything 'stupid'. Roy winked as they left the room. Thea hoped it was to give her courage, and not that he was going to try anything stupid. Now that he didn't have the strength from the Mirakuru, their odds of getting out of there weren't so good. Even if he worked with the Arrow.

Thea passed the time until Roy returned by actively avoiding the guard's eyes on her, and suggestive glances. She knew she should have tried to persuade the man to let her go, but considering there were two other guards outside the door as well, she figured it wasn't worth the effort.

She was almost falling asleep when several loud bangs and a scream startled her out of her semi-slumber state. Suddenly she heard footsteps running away from the door. Her guard increased his alertness, but he didn't open the door as Thea had hoped. Suddenly, the door burst open, and the other guard walked in with Roy unconscious across his shoulders in a fireman's hold.

A small scream escaped Thea's lips as she took in the battered form of her boyfriend. His left eye was blackened, and he had bruises forming on his cheeks and forehead. A cry of outrage followed when the guard dumped Roy into the chair and he roughly straightened him out when he was about to fall off. The guard proceeded to tie Roy to his chair.

"What happened? Why did you beat him up so?" Thea asked, demanding an answer.

"Your boyfriend foolishly attempted to escape. Clearly, he didn't realize we also have the Mirakuru in us, like our boss." The guard gave Thea a wry smile. "Of course, I had to teach him a lesson."

"I would think that would go against your boss' instructions."

"Oh, you think so, Ms. Queen?" Thea jumped as Slade entered the room. She hadn't realized he was standing outside the room. "You are using the tone you use to boss around your servants, I do believe." Thea unconsciously moved back further in her chair as Slade got into her face. "I would recommend against using that tone with us, Ms. Queen, if you don't wish the same punishment that Mr. Harper has received."

Thea willed herself to respond to such behavior defiantly, but all that came out was a nod and a "I wouldn't do that again." Unfortunately, her voice cracked as she said that. In answer, Slade laughed.

"Sorry, I shouldn't take such great measure in scaring a young woman like you, but after all, you are the Kid's sister." He rose, and walked towards the door. "Have a good night, Ms. Queen."

 **AN: Hope you enjoyed this. Slade is ending up being creepier in this story than on the show, but then, I guess I did begin this story with that concept anyhow. And I always have felt that the show didn't keep up the anticipation of fear they had set with the episode "The Promise". I had thought Slade would be more dangerous. Even though he was indeed plenty dangerous on the show. Please let me know what you think. I always enjoy valid criticism and good comments about the plotting, especially. And Felicity, even though she is healing, still suffers from the PTSD from the attack. I hope it read as such. Thanks for reading!**


	18. Chapter 18: A Talk with Mother

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thank you for returning to my story. Sorry it took longer than I wanted to.**

 **Warning: Descriptions of violence and mention of injuries resulting from them.**

Previously:

 _Oliver walked over to her, and took Dig's spot in front of her, Dig having gotten up and moved. He took her hand. "Felicity, I need you to take care of yourself. Okay? I will be fine." As she begin to protest, he raised a finger. "No, I will be fine." As a skeptical look stayed on her face, he continued, "What if we come get you if you are needed. Okay? And we will leave you a message on the progress, all right?" When Felicity continued to remain silent, Oliver captured her eyes and softly asked, "Please? For me?"_

 _Felicity nodded. "Yeah, okay. I should have gone today, but, I was too scared to go."_

 _"_ _Understandable, but you need to go tomorrow. We will be okay." Oliver looked at Dig and Sara. "Let's go to the house. Nothing else we can do out here."_

Once inside the mansion, Sara brought Felicity upstairs to her room to lie down. Oliver had forgotten they had left his mother wondering what was going on, so he had to figure out what to tell her. He needed to talk with Dig first, to clear his mind. He asked his mother to wait for him in her office, promising her he will be in shortly.

Rubbing his face so hard he was amazed he didn't rub his stubble off, Oliver pulled Dig aside. "I wonder why Slade set the trade for tomorrow morning. Why the delay?" He looked Dig directly in the eye. "I hate to even think about possible reasons for the delay."

"It's probably only meant to make you squirm longer. To get you unsettled, so you aren't able to plan an effective fight."

"I hope you're right. Just the thought of him… _violating_ my sister…."

"To me, he doesn't seem like the man who would repeat himself twice. Not to mention doing that sort of crime. At all. He never raped anyone before, right?"

"Yeah, it does seem out of character…at least, for the man I used to know. All bets are off, though, with the mirakuru messing up his mind…" Oliver covered his face with his hands. The thought of his sister in the hands of the madman Slade was now….

Dig placed a hand on Oliver's shoulder. "Don't let the man scramble your mind so bad you can't think straight. We need to come up with a battle plan to get you, Roy and Thea safely out of there. No matter what this madman is thinking."

"Speaking of my sister, I have to figure out what to tell my mother. I really don't want to tell her anything, but…."

"She's going to notice Thea missing, Oliver." Looking Oliver square in the eye, Diggle said, "Maybe it's time to tell her about the Arrow."

"What? With everything she was involved with last year, can we trust her?"

"I think it might be wise to think about telling her, before Slade does. The Lances know, and the way Slade works, he just might have told Thea about it as well."

Diggle watched as the color in Oliver's face, which had finally returned, left again. "Oh no. I really didn't think of that possibility…" Trying to clear his head by shaking it, Oliver grimaced. "I'll see how the conversation goes. I…I just don't think I can handle telling her tonight."

Dig nodded and watched as Oliver left the room.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Oliver stood outside his mother's study. It amazed him that his mother still had the power at times to make him feel like a five-year-old in trouble. He squared his shoulders, knocked on the door, and entered when she gave permission. Upon entering, his eyes were drawn to his mother sitting regally behind the antique dark oak desk, fixing on him her trademark stern look.

"Mom, I apologize for what's been happening…."

"Yes, Oliver. I think I am owed an explanation. Everyone has been acting peculiar. And Thea has been gone all day…."

"I'm sorry no one had told you. She told me she was going to spend some time with Roy."

"That reminds me. Is this boy Roy good for Thea?"

"Yes, he is, Mom. He may be from the other side of the tracks, so to speak, but he is a good young man. And Thea loves him."

Moira cleared her throat and rose out of her chair. "Which brings me to asking again, what was that all about before?"

Oliver had come up with a story which he hoped would sound plausible to his mother. "I thought I had seen Slade in the back yard."

Moira's eyebrows crunched together as she considered her son's words. "But it wasn't?" After Oliver shook his head, Moira walked around her desk. "Are your friends staying another night, then?"

Oliver cleared his throat, to give himself time to think. They hadn't had time to discuss it, but… "Yes, they are. Diggle would much prefer to keep us all centrally located, to protect us better."

"It's interesting how Slade had decided to attack Ms. Smoak. Since she's only your EA."

Oliver fought to keep his face impassive. He hadn't spent much time thinking up an excuse to explain that away, hoping neither his sister nor his mother would realize that. "Well, it's because we are friends, as well, since last year she helped me with some computer issues. It's why I promoted her to be my EA. Because I knew I could trust her implicitly." He cleared his throat as his mother continued to look at him in silence. "So, somehow, Slade figured out how important she is to the business. It's why he targeted her."

Moira nodded, her lips pressed tightly in a small smile. Walking towards the study door, she said, "I better check on dinner. I suppose you didn't update Rose on the extra guests?"

His mother didn't give him a chance to answer, sweeping past him in a hurry. He rolled his eyes, and prayed his mother believed everything he'd told her. Without another word, he followed his mother to the dining room. Oliver wasn't looking forward to getting through supper with his mother and his friends, but he knew he couldn't avoid it. He was feeling the need to go patrolling, but knew his team wouldn't appreciate him being gone, again leaving them with his mother. Not to mention what his mother would think. He told himself he could handle this, and walked into the dining room as his mother continued towards the kitchen to speak to the cook.

He was pleased to see Felicity sitting at the table with the others. She gave him a small smile, which he returned with one of his own. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Much better. I can't believe..." her glance went to Moira, who was looking at her with a speculative expression on her face as she took her seat at the table. "I can't believe how tired I am." She closed her eyes as she was thankful she had noticed Moira and had stopped herself from speaking about the attack.

Oliver gave a small nod, hoping Felicity would acknowledge it as gratitude for her quick save. "I have told my mother you all will be staying tonight as well." He looked around the table. "I hope it was all right."

The rest of his team nodded, and Oliver was relieved nobody argued with him in front of his mother. They proceeded to eat once the food was served, and Oliver did take a moment to enjoy his teammates appreciating the excellent food made by their family cook. Conversation flowed well, considering his mother's presence. She, for the most part, behaved herself as well, and refrained from making any veiled insulting remarks to any of the group.

After supper, his mother excused herself, saying she had work to do in her private study connected to her bedroom upstairs. As soon as she was safely out of earshot, Felicity let out a huge sigh. "Boy, glad that's over. For some reason I felt her eyes on me throughout the entire meal."

"It might be because she asked why Slade had attacked you, considering you are 'just' my EA."

"You couldn't tell her she is also a friend of yours, Oliver?" Diggle asked indignantly.

"Of course I did. I explained we became friends when I brought her my computer to work on."

"Whew!" Felicity wiped her brow. "Glad that explains it. Yeah, I was wondering why she kept looking at me."

"Maybe she's wondering if you are the woman to tame her son," Sara said with a smirk.

"Sara!" Felicity slapped Sara's arm as her face reddened. "Why would she think that?"

Oliver's eyes sought Felicity's as of their own will. When she looked up and noticed Oliver watching her, the blush turned even darker red. Oliver waited for a babble to begin, but none started. Felicity simply sat there fiddling with her food remaining on her plate.

"Oh, you didn't like it?" Oliver asked, head nodding at her plate, with only half of the serving gone.

"I…I wasn't too hungry. It was all so delicious, though," Felicity said.

"Would you like something else to eat? Some toast, perhaps?"

"No, I am full. Honest, Oliver, but thanks for asking." Felicity set aside her silverware, and looked again at Oliver. "I think I will make this an early night, though."

"Of course," Oliver said, and rose as Felicity stood up and began to head for the stairs. He looked at Sara, who quickly nodded.

"I'll accompany her, just to make sure she has everything she needs," she said as she hurried to catch up with her. However, turning back to them, she added, "Oh, I will see what I can find about the meeting place as well. I'll email what I find to you at the Lair."

Diggle leaned back in his chair and looked at Oliver, who remained quiet. "Well, I suppose you need to do some patrolling tonight."

Oliver's lips twisted into a scowl. "It's probably useless, but I would like to see if we can find anything out on Slade, at all." After a moment, Oliver thought of something else **. "** We should see if we can find the logistics on the meeting place as well. Following up on what Sara finds for us. **"**

Rising from his chair, Dig nodded. "All right then. Let's go before your mother stops us with her questions."

After searching the streets for two hours for some sign of Slade, or for any clue any stray passer-by or their snitches on the streets could give, Oliver and Diggle found nothing at all useful. Diggle wasn't sure whether the activity made Oliver's worry better or worse. Finally, he suggested they quit for the night, so hopefully Oliver could get some well-needed rest.

"I suppose. I do need to get some sleep before tomorrow."

"It will be okay, Oliver." Even to Dig's own ears, the sentence sounded unhelpful and patronizing in its false platitudes.

Oliver patted Dig on the back. "Thanks for helping me try, Dig. We shall see. Why don't you head back to the mansion? I'll stop by the lair and check what Sara found."

"Uh-uh, Oliver. We both shall go, and I will make sure you get home at a decent hour."

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

 _"_ _I would think that would go against your boss' instructions."_

 _"_ _Oh, you think so, Ms. Queen?" Thea jumped as Slade entered the room. She hadn't realized he was standing outside the room. "You are using the tone you use to boss around your servants, I do believe." Thea unconsciously moved back further in her chair as Slade got into her face. "I would recommend against using that tone with us, Ms. Queen, if you don't wish the same punishment that Mr. Harper has received."_

 _Thea willed herself to respond to such behavior defiantly, but all that came out was a nod and a "I wouldn't do that again." Unfortunately, her voice cracked as she said that. In answer, Slade laughed._

 _"_ _Sorry, I shouldn't take such great measure in scaring a little girl like you, but after all, you are the Kid's sister." He rose, and walked towards the door. "Have a good night, Ms. Queen."_

After it was clear Slade had left the room, Thea turned her eyes towards Roy, who was beginning to stir in his chair. "Roy! Roy, wake up. What were you trying to do?"

Roy groaned, his eyes shooting open. "Oh, Thea, I'm so sorry. I tried to get us out of here, but I didn't consider the guards having the power juice in them."

"That was brave, but foolish," Thea said, in a tone she tried to be gentle, but still had an edge to it.

"I know, but I had to try."

"Enough!" the guard who beat up Roy yelled at Thea. "Be quiet, or we will gag you."

"What's wrong with us talking, huh? Obviously we're not going anywhere." Thea suddenly remembered what Slade had said about her being defiant, but she continued to keep her chin up defiantly while looking at the guards.

"The boss will not like it. He might do what he threatened to do to you, little girl."

"Thea, I love you, let's try to get some sleep," Roy said, his eyes pleading for her to listen to him.

Thea decided to listen to Roy's unspoken pleas. "I love you too, Roy. Good night, then." Thea tried to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. She closed them tightly so she couldn't see Roy's expression of pain and worry in his eyes. Waiting for a smart remark from one of the guards, Thea was surprised they didn't comment on their "I love you's" to one another.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

It had been a very difficult night for Thea. One, it was plenty uncomfortable trying to sleep tied to a chair. Two, she was very worried about Roy. Since she didn't observe the fight, she didn't know how badly he was hurt. Even though he seemed to be all right, all things considered. Third, she was worried about what Slade had planned, not only for her and Roy, but for her brother as well. She also wondered what was the reason for all of this.

Suddenly the door flew open, and Slade walked in. He nodded at his men, who left the room. Being startled by his presence, Thea's body without any thought on her part, cowled in her chair as he approached her. Slade smiled as he noticed this, and he smiled even wider when Thea realized what she was doing and straightened herself up. She thrust her chin out and looked him square in the eye, trying to communicate a bravery she wasn't feeling.

"Oh, don't worry, Ms. Queen. You might yet escape all of this unharmed." Approaching Roy, Slade began to punch his right fist into his left hand. "However, your boyfriend will unfortunately experience the painful consequences of helping your brother in his ridiculous mission." Suddenly, Slade's right fist flew out and connected with Roy's jaw in a loud wham. Roy's head flew so quickly to the right, Thea thought it would fall off his neck.

"Don't! Please don't hurt him! Didn't your goons hurt him enough last night?" Thea cried out.

"Thea, don't try to beg with him. There's no talking down a psychotic, is there, Slade?" Despite the pain of a busted lip, Roy smiled at Slade. "You think Oliver is going to be affected if you beat me up? He knows I knew the risks when I got involved in his crusade. Just because you're too much of a coward to make this a fair fight…." A blow to the side of his head prevented Roy from finishing the sentence.

"Yesterday's beating was all about teaching young Mr. Harper a lesson. Today's beating is all about teaching your brother a lesson." Slade proceeded to punch Roy several times in the abdomen, accompanied by a grunt from Roy.

Thea alternated trying to keep her eyes closed, not screaming and attempting to stop the maniac in front of her from beating up Roy. None of it mattered. Slade continued to punch and kick Roy until the young man was covered in blood and was unconscious.

Thea watched, her eyes wide, holding her breath, and a scream, as Slade finally stopped and bent over Roy, checking his neck for a pulse.

 **AN: Oh, no, did I** ** _just_** **do that? Leave you guys there to wonder about Roy's fate? Shame on me. Don't worry, I should get the next chapter up soon.**


	19. Chapter 19: What Happened to Roy?

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thank you for all the great reviews, comments, and kudos on this story. Glad you returned to see what's happened with Roy.**

 **Warning: Possible triggers of mention/threat of rape.**

Previously:

 _"_ _Yesterday's beating was all about teaching young Mr. Harper a lesson. Today's beating is all about teaching your brother a lesson." Slade proceeded to punch Roy several times in the abdomen, accompanied by a grunt from Roy._

 _Thea alternated trying to keep her eyes closed, not screaming and attempting to stop the maniac in front of her beating up Roy. None of it mattered. Slade continued to punch and kick Roy until the young man was covered in blood and was unconscious._

 _Thea watched, her eyes wide, holding her breath, and a scream, as Slade finally stopped and bent over Roy, checking his neck for a pulse._

Standing, Slade met Thea's worried eyes with a smile. "Don't worry, Princess, I didn't kill him. Yet."

Thea let out her held breath in a sob. "Can you just tell me why you're doing this? All of this because of some fight between you and my brother?"

"Not just 'some' fight, Ms. Queen. Your brother took away the woman I loved. I promised him, five years ago, I would make him pay. And I intend to make him pay. With everything he holds dear."

"How? By beating up on his family and friends? Just because he doesn't have a girlfriend you can take vengeance upon?"

Slade shook his head. "Oh, you innocent girl. Again, I don't know why the Kid has kept it quiet whatever is between him and Ms. Smoak. But don't worry, my dear. I did indeed take my sweet revenge upon the woman he loves, Ms. Smoak." At Thea showed her confusion, he continued. "I guess you still do not understand." Slade bent down to look Thea in the eye. "I forced myself on her. Because your brother hasn't made a move on her yet. Pity him for that. I'm sure it drove him crazy thinking I had his sweet Felicity first before he did."

Thea pulled away in disgust. She didn't know which feeling was prevalent, fear for her own safety, pity for the poor blonde assistant who didn't deserve such treatment, or disgust with her captor's vulgar behavior and talk.

"You really are one sick bastard, aren't you?"

Slade wiggled his eyebrows, smiling lasciviously. "Would you like to find out?" As Thea, in spite of herself, let out a little scream and shrank back into the chair, Slade let out a loud, raucous laugh as he straightened. "Don't worry, love. I wouldn't do that to you. It isn't my usual cup of tea anyway. I only did it to show up your brother. Taking away his happiness bit by bit." Brushing off his hands, Slade said, "There's really no reason for me to attack you. When I have so many other ways in which to torture your brother."

As he walked away from her and towards the room's exit, Slade said, "Don't miss me too much, for I'm not going to be gone long. I simply have other details to set up in the other room."

Thea's lower lip curled in disgust as the man left. A shiver went down her back as she recalled Slade's face in hers. She didn't know whether she believed his insistence that he wouldn't rape her. Suddenly remembering Roy, her eyes flew to take in her boyfriend's still form. With his vulgar threat, Slade had gotten her mind off of Roy, at least temporarily. Her eyes flew to his chest. She breathed easier when she observed Roy's chest rising and falling without difficulty.

Taking the opportunity, Thea screamed Roy's name several times, only to realize it didn't seem to wake him up. She wished she go to him and see how badly injured he was, but the ropes were binding her to the chair. To get her mind off of Roy, she scanned the room, It was simply a room, four walls, with a window about seven feet from the ground. With one of the chairs, her arms could reach it. But it appeared as though it didn't open. Just their luck. Maybe she could break it. If she got untied first. Not knowing how long before Slade returned, Thea hurriedly turned her attention to trying to get loose from her bonds.

In a shorter amount of time than she would have liked, Slade returned before Thea was able to loosen her bonds at all. Thea knew her face involuntarily showed her disappointment before she remembered to hide it. Slade only laughed. "Sorry to disappoint you, darling, but I've returned. But only for a short time." He walked over to Roy, and, picking him up like he was a sack of flour, threw her boyfriend over his shoulders. Thea didn't know whether to cry out in relief in response to the groan she heard from him or to yell at their abductor for his cruelty towards the wounded man.

"Where are you taking him? What are you going to do?" Thea asked, in spite of herself. She wanted to play it cool with Slade, thinking he would tell her more if she didn't ask him questions, but her fear for Roy and herself overruled common sense.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Don't worry, dear, I wouldn't hurt him further. He'll be in good hands tonight, unlike you." Allowing those words to possibly terrify her, Slade left the room. She almost began to cry when she heard the key turn in the lock, and Slade's heavy footsteps fade away.

As she attempted to loosen her bonds, Thea let her mind wander over her situation. What _was_ he going to do with Roy? It was possible he was going to return Roy to Oliver, since Slade had made it clear he couldn't wait to see Oliver's reaction to Roy being beaten so viciously. Could that be it? Thea could only hope so, since Slade said Roy would be in good hands. Hopefully, he meant out of captivity and amongst friends.

Her thoughts then returned to her own situation. What would he do with her? He did say she wasn't going to be in good hands, _tonight_. Hopefully it meant he was planning on letting her go sometime soon. Instead of what she had thought, that his hands weren't 'good', and she'd be in them tonight. Literally. She shivered again and turned her attention back to loosening her bonds, instead of thinking about it some more.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Meanwhile, Oliver had experienced a restless night. His nightmares had been a combination of the ones from the island as well as all sorts of scenarios of being beaten by Slade. After experiencing a repeated cycle of nightmares, he was finally able to rouse himself out of the altered reality at 3 am. He then spent the next several hours attempting to clear his mind and rest, with little success. After tossing and turning for two hours, he gave up, rising from his bed at 5 am, leaving the mansion for the lair shortly after.

Beginning his usual routine of calisthenics to warm up, he lost himself in the routineness of it. He then did a turn on the salmon ladder, and then he took the rest of his aggression out on the fighting dummy. As part of his cool-down, he jumped rope for an indeterminate amount of time as well, to help release tension. Realizing two hours had somehow passed, he decided he better shower and eat breakfast.

Since it was daylight, and it was dealing with 'Oliver Queen' problems, Oliver had decided he and the team not wear their vigilante outfits for their meeting with Slade. Hopefully, he wouldn't live to regret that decision, but he seriously doubted they'd run into anyone he didn't want to show their fighting abilities in front of.

The plan was for Diggle and Sara to be in the van parked a block away, listening via a hidden microphone Oliver would be wearing. If there were trouble, they could respond. Before going to the meeting place, they would drop off Felicity at the counseling center. They would then head directly to the meeting place and get set up.

As he approached the building, everything within Oliver screamed for him not to enter the building. Something seemed off when there weren't any guards outside. Oliver wondered why but figured it might be Slade's way of playing more mind games with him. As if he'd be led into a false sense of security. He opened the door, and finding it unobstructed, walked down the hallway. "All clear for now," he told his team via the hidden microphone.

Turning a corner, Oliver came upon a closed door with a small window at the top of it. He approached it from the side, and planting himself flat against the wall, he slowly peered into the room. He saw one figure lying on the floor, frightfully still, but the small amount of sunlight coming through the dirty windows at the top of the walls showed what looked like blood on the floor beside the figure. Oliver quickly scanned the rest of the room visible from his position, took one last look around him, and barged into the room, his bow with an arrow notched and ready. When no targets appeared, he couldn't hold in his frustration any long, lowering the bow and simply ran to the motionless figure.

It was Roy. Two black eyes, a split lip, bruises covering his face and the part of Roy's upper chest he could see under his half-buttoned shirt. Oliver quickly checked the young man's pulse. It was irregular, and his breathing was shallow, probably indicating several cracked or broken ribs. He scanned the rest of Roy, and noticed one of his legs was bent at an unnatural angle.

Swearing under his breath, Oliver quickly went to Roy's head. "Roy, Roy! Can you hear me? It's Oliver. Please tell me what happened. Tell me where Thea is!"

"'Li-ver? Is that you?" Oliver could tell it took a lot of effort for Roy to speak. "Slade...Thea…."

"What? Did Slade hurt Thea?"

"No…I don't…think…so. He said, he said…I was to suffer…for what…you…did."

Oliver lowered his head and bit back a reply. Focusing on Thea, he asked, "Does he still have Thea?"

"Yes."

Suddenly Oliver heard a cell phone ringing. Noticing a lump in Roy's shirt pocket, he took out Roy's cell phone, which indeed was receiving an incoming call. Opening it, he sighed as he read 'blocked call'. He answered it with a curt hello.

"You receive my gift, I assume?" Slade's voice came across the wires loud and clear.

"Slade, damn you! You didn't have to beat Roy almost to death."

"I better let you go so you can get him to the hospital then…."

"No, Slade, wait! What are you doing? Where is Thea? If you've hurt her…."

"Tsk, tsk Oliver. I wouldn't hurt your darling baby sister. At least, not without you as a witness."

"You said you were going to exchange both of them for me. I am here, why aren't you and Thea?"

"I changed the deal. I need you to meet me tomorrow at the old Anderson building in Pennytown. 9 am."

"Enough, Slade. No more games. I want Thea and I want her _now_."

"Of course you do. But you wouldn't get her until tomorrow."

"Slade!" Oliver screamed into the phone as a dial tone occurred. He slammed the phone shut. Trying to get his breathing under control, he quickly called 911 to get an ambulance there, then slipped Roy's phone into his pocket for safekeeping.

Diggle and Sara burst in through the same door Oliver had entered. They stopped, taking in the scene, then rushed to Oliver's side. Diggle asked, "Oliver! What the hell is going on?"

Oliver looked up from his crouched position next to Roy. "Slade continues to play his little games. Another way to torture me."

"By almost killing Roy?" Diggle asked, shaking his head in disgust.

"But Oliver….?" Sara begins to ask, "How _could_ Slade almost beat him to death? Why isn't Roy healing?"

The three of them looked down at Roy. Oliver had been so preoccupied with Thea and everything else, that fact hadn't made an impression on his mind. He bent over the young man again.

"Roy! How you're doing? The ambulance is on its way."

"I don't feel…feel so good."

"Yes, I know. Did Slade give you the antidote? Is that why he could beat you up so badly?"

Roy nodded slightly. Oliver looked up at Dig and Sara. "It explains it then."

"We better get him to the hospital. I worry about possible internal injuries to his organs, or cracked ribs. Where's that ambulance?" Dig asked.

To the relief of everyone sirens were heard then. Dig asked, "What's our story for the police and hospital?"

Oliver massaged his forehead with his right hand. "I don't want the police involved with this, but I guess we've no other choice. Roy needs to be hospitalized. There'll be questions." Looking around the building, Oliver said, "Maybe I should say I've been thinking about opening another club, and Roy took it upon himself to scout for new locations."

"And he disturbed a gang of kids in here? Do we really want to go that route?" Sara asked.

"It has to be a group of attackers. No regular human can inflict this much damage alone."

"Roy could say they had masks on and he didn't see who they were," suggested Dig.

"Yes, that sounds good." Oliver stood up, having to get some air. He walked towards the door. "I'll go meet the paramedics and lead them in here."

 **AN: Yep, another chapter ending. Thank you for reading this, and hope you'll let me know what you thought. If something touched you, or struck you, or anything you want to comment on, sure hope you will take the time to write it. Always appreciated.**


	20. Chapter 20: The Beginning of the End

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thanks for continuing to read and support this story. Hope you are enjoying this story. And the next big surprise I have in store for you, which we are building towards. I again apologize for the long wait. Real life took a sudden turn for me at the beginning of the month, and it hasn't been good. Writing is one of the few things I have left to bring me joy at this time, so I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

Earlier that day, as the team was busy with Roy, Moira took a moment to appreciate the beautiful day it was, even at 9am, as she stepped out of her family home. Easier than figuring out her son. Who had left the house at the crack of dawn, before she could ask him the questions which had occurred to her overnight.

Her campaign office was sending a car for her today. Lucky for her, because she didn't know where the usual chauffeur was. And Mr. Diggle, who occasionally would offer to drive her, had also left the house after he, Sara and Ms. Smoak had grabbed a quick breakfast. They hadn't offered to tell her their plans for the day, and she didn't feel comfortable asking. For some reason, because usually she wouldn't hesitant to ask any question she had. However, her son's strange behavior over the past few days was for some reason affecting her. And it was that same behavior which made her skittish about driving herself to the office.

A limo approached the front door and Moira walked towards it, as the driver got out and opened the back door for her. She didn't notice, as she got into the limo, a man sitting in the back seat. Only after she had climbed into the limo did she feel a presence beside her, bringing her out of her reverie.

The door was closed abruptly as Moira looked up and noticed the man beside her. It was Slade Wilson. The man whom her son had warned her about with such fear in his eyes. She reached for the door handle, but the door automatically locked before she could open it. Her eyes fell back to Slade, who was now pointing a gun at her.

"Not a sound, Mrs. Queen, or your children will be orphans. Please sit back and enjoy the ride." Pulling a black cloth bag out of his pocket, he placed it over her head with his other hand. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to wear this bag. To protect yourself from things you shouldn't know." He then asked for her to hold her hands out, and she felt handcuffs placed around her wrists. Moira sensed Slade turn away from her and say, "We can go now."

Moira attempted to quell the fear threatening to explode out of her. She had no idea what he was going to do with her, and it frightened her immensely. She wanted desperately to beg for her life, but she kept telling herself to remain quiet for now. To wait for Slade to reveal his plan for her and her family. Feeling she had no other choice, Moira sat back into the seat, and tried to remain calm for the rest of the ride.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

It felt to Thea as if days had passed since Slade had left her alone in the room, instead of a few measly hours. Her attempts to remain calm were failing miserably as she alternated between worrying about Roy and whether he was still alive, and Slade's plans for him. She wondered if she would've felt the least bit better if she knew Slade's plans for them all, then quickly changed her mind. Perhaps she was lucky her kidnapper hadn't decided to play 'big bad villain' and boasted his plans to her before leaving.

To her dismay the bonds tying her to the chair refused to budge. She didn't feel them loosen at all. Instead, they were beginning to be slippery once again with her blood. The only result from her attempts were reopening the cuts on her wrists, making the ropes slippery with blood.

Suddenly she heard noises outside the room. The door opened, and she gasped as she watched Slade leading a woman with a black bag over her head, her hands handcuffed in front of her, wearing a very familiar dress, into the room. Thea swallowed her sobs as she realized it was her mother being brought towards her.

Without a word, Slade brought Moira over to the chair left vacant with Roy's absence and forced her to sit down. He took rope out of his pocket and proceeded to tie her firmly to the chair, binding her upper arms tightly to her sides as well as the chair. He then took out a second piece of rope and tied her feet together and to the bottom rung of the chair. He then removed the bag from her head and Moira gasped, as her eyes fell on Thea.

"Oliver said you were with Roy," Moira said, her voice shaking, her face pale.

Thea swallowed another sob as Slade spoke. "Oh, indeed she was, Mrs. Queen. The boy had been here earlier. However, true to his vile nature, your son didn't tell you the complete truth, did he? That they were kidnapped. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'd think you would've taught him better than that."

Thea watched as anger ignited in her mother's eyes. Before Thea could stop her, Moira said, "How dare you talk about my son that way. It's no concern of yours how I raised him."

Slade lowered himself until he was right in Moira's face "As I warned your spoiled daughter, that high-and-mighty tone of the filthy rich isn't welcomed here. You should know I hold your lives in my hands. Thus, I deserve your utmost respect. _And_ your caution."

Moira looked at her daughter, who nodded slightly at Moira. Thea bit her lower lip in an attempt not to say anything because she was afraid of angering the man. Slade was becoming more difficult to predict, his mood swings appearing at odd times.

Thea watched her mother attempt to gather her dignity while placating their enemy. "I apologize, Mr. Wilson. I did not mean any insult," her mother said, giving an air of sincerity to her words.

Slade nodded to acknowledge what she had said. "Yes, I would think you'd know how to act politely." He rose and began to pace slowly in front of them. "You may wonder what will happen next. Well, after I pick up our next guest I will contact your son, Mrs. Queen, to meet us here for a little…' _talk_ '." He added, as he then walked towards the door. "I should gag you both, but I don't think you run too high a risk for me. I'll leave now to see about the next part of my plan. Take care, ladies. I'll see you soon."

The two women watched as the man left and two guards entered, taking their places on either side of the locked door. Thea thought Slade's security measures were overkill, but…perhaps her brother was indeed more dangerous than she'd previously thought. She still was having difficulty reconciling the thought of Oliver being the Arrow. That, indeed, her very own brother was capable of all those heroic deeds…it was just too…amazing to think about.

"Thea, do you know what this is all about?" Moira's question broke through Thea's thoughts.

Thea swallowed, looking at her mother. She wondered if she should share Oliver's secrets, but from what he knew of Slade, they'd probably come out one way or another. "Mom, Slade is apparently out for revenge against Oliver for killing a woman he loved."

"Oliver did share that little bit with me. But how was that possible? Why would my boy do that? Actually _kill_ a woman? Not my Oliver."

"Slade didn't tell me the details either. Hopefully we can get Ollie to tell us. Once this is all over, hopefully, when we're all back at home. Safe."

At her daughter's change in tone, Moira looked up with concern. "Are you afraid he's going to kill us?"

"Or worse. He said…he said he raped Felicity to get back at Oliver. He says Oliver's been interested in her but hasn't made a move. He meant to hurt Ollie if he…did."

Moira gasped. "That man hasn't…he hasn't…?"

"No, Mom, he hasn't raped me." Thea swallowed and whispered, "At least, not yet, anyway."

Moira breathed a silent sigh of relief, then attempted to hide her fear. "I…I'm sure we're just hostages…and Oliver will get us out of here. I cannot believe Mr. Wilson would do something like this. He seemed such a perfect gentleman the other night."

"Looking back at that night, though, Mom, couldn't you tell Ollie was on edge? Something was wrong. Here I thought it was your argument you two been having." Thea stared into the distance off to the side of her mother. "I wish I'd have followed my instincts and asked Oliver what was wrong."

"He'd probably wouldn't have told you."

Anger passed over Thea's face. "Just like you, keeping things from us. From me."

Moira bit her lower lip, her eyes expressing the sorrow she felt. "I'm sorry, dear. Perhaps we wouldn't be in this situation if we'd all been honest with one another. No secrets. I vow, once we get out of this, not to have any more secrets from either you or Oliver."

"I hope so, Mom. I hope so."

"This isn't exactly the right time or place to discuss family secrets."

"I just hope we'll get another time to do so, then."

Moira decided to ignore her daughter's bitter tone, and ask another question. "Mr. Wilson mentioned Roy. What happened to him?"

Thea stifled a sob. "After beating him almost to death, Slade took Roy out of here. He wouldn't tell me where he took Roy, but he hinted he was bringing him to Oliver. Why, I don't know."

"Would you know who Slade is going to get next?"

"I can't imagine, Mom. Slade hasn't told me anything of his plans. I don't understand _anything_ ," Thea responded, unable to hide her irritation any longer.

"I'm sorry, Thea. For everything. For you being in this position."

Thea threw her mother a look under furrowed eyebrows. "Mom, do you know something about all of this? Is this _your_ fault?"

Moira sat back a little in her chair, apparently surprised by Thea's question. "No, I only meant to offer sympathy for your imprisonment here. He hasn't hurt you any, has he?"

"No, but he has hurt both Roy and Felicity. Who knows if we'll be next, Mom."

Moira shook her head. "Try not to think about that, Thea. We need to try to keep our minds calm so we can get out of here, if we can. Before anyone else is hurt."

Thea pointedly looked at the two burly guards at the doorway, pretending not to listen to the two women. Her lips curled downwards. "I don't know if that will be possible."

Moira decided to ignore her daughter's bitter tone and not answer. The two women fell into an uncomfortable silence. Thea went back to attempting to loosen her bonds, unobtrusively, since the guards were watching them. It took all her attention for them to remain oblivious. _Actually, why am I trying? The bonds aren't loosening any, and with two huge men I couldn't escape anyway._ Thea shook her head to clear her mind of such negative thoughts and continued to try to get free.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

 _To the relief of everyone sirens were heard then. Dig asked, "What's our story for the police and hospital?"_

 _Oliver massaged his forehead with his right hand. "I don't want the police involved with this, but I guess we have no other choice. Roy needs to be hospitalized. There will be questions." Looking around the building, Oliver said, "Maybe I should say I've been thinking about opening another club, and Roy took it upon himself to scout for new locations."_

 _"_ _Roy could say they had masks on and he didn't see who they were," suggested Dig._

 _"_ _Yes, that sounds good." Oliver stood up, having to get some air. He walked towards the door. "I'll go meet the paramedics and lead them in here."_

Oliver rode in the ambulance with Roy, while Dig and Sara followed in the van. They found themselves waiting in the family room while Roy was immediately taken into surgery, to address the suspected internal damage to his organs.

Roy Harper's concerned loved ones spent four long hours waiting anxiously for news. Oliver had spent most of the time pacing the small waiting room, while Sara thumbed through magazines without taking in any of the information. Dig alternated between watching TV, changing the channels to find something interesting and keeping an eye on Oliver as he paced, wanting to say something to comfort the other man, but couldn't think of anything helpful to say. It wasn't until 1pm when a doctor in scrubs arrived to tell them that Roy was going to be fine. His internal injuries, though serious, would heal with time, with minimal if any lasting damage or disability.

Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. Taking out his phone, he was about to text Felicity a message when it rang. When he saw the number blocked, his heart leaped into his throat. He nodded at Sara and Dig. Turning away from them, swallowing the fear, he answered.

"Hey, Kid, glad Junior will make it."

Unable to restrain all the anger from showing in his voice, Oliver asked, looking around, "How'd you know that?"

"I got my sources." Waiting a moment, Slade then continued. "Now that you have that taken care of, why don't we move our meeting to 3pm today. Instead of tomorrow."

"What? That's less than an hour and a half from now."

"Don't tell me it doesn't leave you enough time to plan? Well, too bad." As Slade disconnected the call, Oliver turned back towards his team.

"Let me guess. He moved up the meeting time," Sara said with her lips turned into a scowl.

"Yes." Oliver looking at his watch, let out a sigh. "We can leave Felicity at the counseling center. She should be safe there and she needs the time anyway. Their sessions run until 5."

"Well, we better get going. Let me leave a message with the nurse to give to Roy if we're not back before he wakes up," Dig offered.

"And I'll text Felicity letting her know we're on a mission but will pick her up at 5," Sara said.

 **AN: Oh my, oh my, what is Slade up to now? Sorry it's slow, but we are building up to the final confrontation step by step.**


	21. Chapter 21: Yet Another Encounter

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: Thanks again for returning. Reviews were pretty quiet the last chapter. Not sure why. Hopefully this chapter receives a better response. I always appreciate all comments, reviews, favs and follows and Kudos!**

Previously:

 _"_ _Let me guess. He moved up the meeting time," Sara said with her lips turned into a scowl._

 _"_ _Yes." Oliver looking at his watch, let out a sigh. "We can leave Felicity at the counseling center. She should be safe there and she needs the time anyway. Their sessions run until 5."_

 _"_ _Well, we better get going. Let me leave a message with the nurse to give to Roy if we're not back before he wakes up," Dig offered._

 _"_ _And I'll text Felicity letting her know we're on a mission but will pick her up at 5," Sara said._

Meanwhile, at the counseling center, Felicity was experiencing a productive morning. She was relieved to be back attending group and individual counseling sessions. It had been a rough couple of days, but discussing her reactions to Thea's kidnapping in the safe place of the therapy group helped her greatly. Luckily, today, the group consisted of only women she'd gotten to know from over the previous weeks, so she felt more comfortable in sharing the experience with them. It soothed her soul when most of the women vocalized their support for her and validated her feelings of fear, hopelessness and rage. She learned her reaction, the anxiety attack, was perfectly understandable, realistic, and to be expected, given the circumstances. However, with further therapy, such reactions as anxiety attacks will most likely eventually decrease for her, Felicity was happy to find out. She had also learned several new coping techniques to try if another anxiety attack should occur.

Coming out of the center at lunch, she turned on her phone. Felicity had checked it for messages from the team at break, but there were none. There were also no messages left for her at the reception desk. She tried not to worry about it, because they'd specifically told her they would only text her if something was wrong. Because of her being in therapy groups all day, they wanted her to focus on herself and her own health, for once.

Feeling the need to get some fresh air, Felicity crossed the street on the way to the little coffeehouse she had fallen in love with since she had started attending the center's sessions. She failed to notice the limo approaching her from behind her until it pulled up beside her and stopped. The back door opened and the man from her nightmares was suddenly leaning out and aiming a gun right at her.

Felicity shook her head and blinked several times, trying to erase the image she was desperately hoping was an illusion or hallucination. However, Slade didn't leave any room for doubt as to the reality of his presence. She couldn't help the passing thoughts going through her mind reprimanding her for going outside alone.

"Ms. Smoak, please get into the limo. Now." Indicating the seat beside him with the gun, he gave her a smile she knew was hiding all sorts of evil thoughts as he moved a short distance closer to the other side of the seat to offer her more room.

Unconsciously, she turned her head, looking down the street for any witnesses who could possibly help her, when an angry Australian growl came from within the limo. "Now!"

Felicity jumped, and leaped into the car without thought to her skirt, which bunched up beneath her. Once she was inside the limo, the chauffeur, having gotten out of the car, closed the door. Suddenly the car door locked as she attempted to straighten out her skirt so she was sitting properly. Her eyes met Slade's as he watched her squirm in the seat, trying to discretely pull the skirt into its proper place. The thought crossed her mind quickly how thankful she was for deciding to wear one of her looser, more relaxed skirts that morning. The last thing she would want was to give the man beside her a peep show.

"If you're finished squirming, please put your hands behind your back and turn your back towards me."

Felicity sighed and did what he requested. She felt handcuffs be placed around her wrists, and felt them tighten. She bit her lip to prevent a cry of discomfort when her tender skin got pinched as the cuffs tightened.

"Please sit back and relax, Ms. Smoak. We do have a little ride ahead of us." Taking out a black cloth bag out of his pocket, he said, "And, I'm going to place this over your head. It's necessary to protect you from knowing where we're going."

"I don't know why. You're going to kill me anyway, aren't you?" Realizing she had said her thought out loud, she gasped. "Oh, sorry. Just in case you hadn't thought of it, I hope I didn't put it into your mind. About killing me, I mean. I suppose you were thinking of that already. Since you already tried once this week. Or last week." She swallowed. "Three, two, one, I'm going to stop talking now."

"That would be my preference," the sentence entered her ear, startling her. Instead of Oliver's beloved voice over their comms, the sentence was said in the Australian accent of a deadly enemy.

Swallowing the sob which rose with the memory of the night in the casino when they were trying to find Walter, Felicity sank back into the cushioned seat instead. This was no time to think of the past, but she wondered if Slade knew the significance of his statement. She reminded herself she needed to present the villain a brave front, not one of scared, helpless female. She closed her eyes tightly to prevent herself from crying. _I will get through this. Somehow._

"I'm rather surprised you haven't attempted to tear the car door off and escape," Slade's voice interrupted her thoughts, bringing her mind back to the emergency at hand. The need to outwit this master criminal and save Oliver.

 _Yeah, why haven't I tried that? Oh yeah, the guy has a gun which he might use to shoot my eye out. Not to mention the man is twice my size. Oh, wait a minute, I'm supposed to convince him I don't have the Mirakuru strength any more._ "I…I no longer have the Mirakuru within me. Before we found out about your escape, I…I took the antidote."

"Really?"

Slade's doubt made Felicity want to slink into the seat cushions. Could she carry this off when she couldn't see his reactions? But, she reminded herself, she didn't know what Slade had in mind. Her secret could be their only ace in the hole.

Forcing her voice to be strong, Felicity replied, "Of course. Oliver wanted it out of me as quickly as possible. The thought of it terrified him. And, of course, _if_ I still had it in me, why would I allow myself to be captured by you again?"

Slade let out a chuckle. "I guess. Yes, I can imagine the Kid wanting to get the Mirakuru out of your system as soon as possible."

Felicity again attempted to calm her anxious mind and slow her breathing. It appeared Slade bought the whole 'I took the antidote' story. At least with the bag over her face she didn't have to worry about her face betraying her lie.

Felicity pushed everything out of her mind to sit back and concentrate on the turns which the limo was taking, and any other signs of the environment they pass by. In case such information could prove useful in their escape later. Slim though the possibility, it kept her calm.

Before she knew it, the limo stopped. Her stomach in her throat, Felicity heard the limo door open, and felt Slade taking her arm to lead her to God knows where. They walked a short distance, and up a long flight of stairs. From the smells and sounds, Felicity deduced they were in the warehouse district of the Glades. Probably entering a warehouse from their freight entrance, hence the long staircase.

Her heels echoing as they walked along a linoleum floor, Felicity tried not to trip as Slade hurried her along. Her mind became confused with the twists and turns they made before she felt them enter a large room. She heard two separate gasps as she was eventually led to a wooden chair with a high back and was forced to sit down.

Felicity then felt rope being wound around her upper body, and gave out a small 'pft' when Slade tightened the bonds, unexpectantly bringing her tightly to the back of the chair in which she was sitting. Felicity then predictably felt rope binding her feet to the bar at the bottom of the chair. Suddenly her eyes were shot with bright light as the bag was removed without warning from her head.

"Now, I suppose I don't have to make the introductions among you women. I'll take my leave again, to prepare for the arrival of your son and brother, Mrs. and Ms. Queen. And whatever he is to you, Ms. Smoak." A cackle left the crude man's mouth as he left the room, clearly amused by his last remark.

"What?" After her eyes adjusted to the increase in light, Felicity realized Thea and Moira were sitting on either side of her. "But…but, I thought Oliver was trading himself for you and Roy, Thea?" Turning to the older woman, Felicity then asked Moira, "And how did he capture you? How long have you been here?"

Thea interrupted her mother. "What? _That_ was Slade's plan? For Oliver to trade himself for me and Roy?" she looked at her mother. "I guess I was right. Roy must be at the hospital now, since apparently he brought Roy to Oliver." Returning her gaze to Felicity, Thea asked, "But why isn't Oliver here with us now?"

Felicity chewed her lower lip. "Unless it was a trick. To continue to play with Oliver. He only gave Oliver Roy…did you say hospital? Was Roy hurt?" Felicity's voice was a little moist as she asked the question.

Her tears surprised Thea. "Yes, that awful Slade beat him up most terribly. I've been worried about him. All I know, he was still breathing, but unconscious, when Slade took him out of here this morning."

"Yes, this morning was when Oliver was to meet Slade at an abandoned factory for you and Roy."

"If you work with the Arrow, why weren't you with them?" Thea asked.

"The Arrow?" Moira asked, surprised.

Thea let out a small gasp. She caught Felicity's widened eyes and gave a small shrug. "Oops." She continued, "Slade probably would end up telling Mom sooner or later anyway."

"I already knew Oliver is the Arrow," interrupted a quiet but calm and steady reply from her mother.

Thea and Felicity turned in surprise to Moira, who gave her own small shrug. "I've known since last year. Right before the Undertaking."

Felicity was speechless. It had occurred to her, throughout the months and knowing the intelligence of the older woman, to wonder if Oliver's mother had suspected or had figured out about the Arrow. With everything which had occurred along the way, it never seemed the right time to ask Oliver his thoughts about it. If they all survived this, Felicity couldn't imagine what Oliver's reaction will be to this new revelation.

Suddenly Felicity was interrupted from her thoughts by realizing the two women were waiting for her reply to Thea's question. "I…I've been attending counseling almost daily, or trying to, for what…because of what Slade did…" Felicity cleared her throat. "Oliver and the others insisted I go today, because I had an anxiety attack thinking of you being with Slade, Thea. They were to update me as things went along." Felicity's lips trembled. "I wonder why they didn't."

Thea hurriedly said, "I'm sure they didn't want to worry you until they knew how Roy was. And…and I'm sure he's fine." Swallowing hard, she said softly, "He better be." Squaring her shoulders, Thea met Felicity's eyes and said in a stronger voice, "I'm sure he's just fine."

Felicity nodded in silence, biting her lower lip. Allowing the silence in the room to continue, Felicity turned towards her bonds, trying to come up with an idea for the confrontation ahead.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Previously:

 _Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. Taking out his phone, he was about to text Felicity a message when it rang. When he saw the number blocked, his heart leaped into his throat. He nodded at Sara and Dig. Turning away from them, swallowing the fear, he answered._

 _"_ _Hey, Kid, glad Junior will make it."_

 _Unable to restrain all the anger from showing in his voice, Oliver asked, looking around, "How'd you know that?"_

 _"_ _I got my sources." Waiting a moment, Slade then continued. "Now that you have that taken care of, why don't we move our meeting to 3pm today. Instead of tomorrow."_

One of the few good things about the day they've had, Oliver thought, was that everything they needed was in the van already. There wasn't enough time to go to the lair to get anything else they might need, unfortunately.

They decided to leave for the meeting place immediately. If they could get there to scout out the place without Slade being suspicious, they might gain an advantage. The plan this time was for Diggle and Sara to be situated close by, with antidote arrows and bullets handy. Oliver didn't want to leave anything to chance with Slade upping the danger, it seemed. Oliver sensed Slade was losing control of what was remaining of his sanity, making him even more dangerous and unpredictable, putting Thea into even more danger.

The place for this meeting was a two-story warehouse also in the Glades. Diggle pulled up the blueprints on his smart phone and reviewed them with the team. Sara was able to hack into the security cameras of the building to discover that, this time, Slade did have guards situated outside. It appeared that five guards made periodic sweeps of the outside grounds, while inside Sara located what appeared to be guards at every entrance and four who made rounds around the warehouse interior.

"How many Mirakuru soldiers do Slade and Isabel have?" Sara asked, her irritability and fear sneaking into her voice.

Oliver shook his head. "Yeah, we have to assume they're all affected. Thank goodness we made enough antidote arrows and bullets."

Studying the information, Diggle said, "I think our best bet, is Sara and I clearing the way for you to enter here," he pointed at a side door. "First, we all take care of the outside guards, so hopefully they don't set off an alarm. Then, Oliver, you enter and meet up with Slade while Sara and I take care of any other guards lurking around. Hopefully, if…"

"Don't you mean, 'when"?" Sara interjected.

Digg looked at Sara, "If _or_ when stuff hits the fan, we are in place to provide assistance."

 **AN: Hmm. An exciting place to end the chapter, or not? I can't tell. Things are heating up. Poor Oliver; he's not aware Moira and Felicity have also been taken. Hmm. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for the exciting final battle between Slade and Team Arrow!**


	22. Chapter 22: the Beginning of the end

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this. I also borrow some dialogue from Arrow episode 2 x 19: "Seeing Red", written by Wendy Mericle and Beth Schwartz, for this chapter.

 **AN: So happy the last chapter was enjoyed. Sorry (not sorry) for leaving you in suspense. Thank you for all the kudos, comments, reviews and favs. Always appreciated. Hope you enjoy this next chapter as well.**

Previously:

 _The place for this meeting was a two-story warehouse also in the Glades. Diggle pulled up the blueprints on his smart phone and reviewed them with the team. Sara was able to hack into the security cameras of the building to discover that, this time, Slade did have guards situated outside. It appeared that five guards made periodic sweeps of the outside grounds, while inside Sara located what appeared to be guards at every entrance and four who made rounds around the warehouse interior._

 _"_ _How many Mirakuru soldiers do Slade and Isabel have?" Sara asked, her irritability and fear sneaking into her voice._

 _Oliver shook his head. "Yeah, we have to assume they're all affected. Thank goodness we made enough antidote arrows and bullets."_

 _Studying the information, Diggle said, "I think our best bet, is Sara and I clearing the way for you to enter here," he pointed at a side door. "First, we all take care of the outside guards, so hopefully they don't set off an alarm. Then, Oliver, you enter and meet up with Slade while Sara and I take care of any other guards lurking around. Hopefully, if…"_

 _"_ _Don't you mean, 'when"?" Sara interjected._

 _Digg looked at Sara, "If or when stuff hits the fan, we are in place to provide assistance."_

The rescue at first went according to Digg's plan. Oliver assisted Digg and Sara in taking out the guards around the perimeter. Oliver then entered the building by the side door, while the other two kept watch, and proceeded down the narrow hallway leading towards one of two large rooms on the first floor. However, as he approached the hallway which would take him directly to the room he suspected held Thea, Oliver heard a slight sound behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt as though his head was split open with something heavy.

The next thing he became aware of, Oliver's head was banging a rhythm he didn't like. He hadn't felt like that for a long time. Not since his partying days before the shipwreck. Something told him he needed to open his eyes, but it was such a struggle. His head hurt too much, but he knew he shouldn't let that stop him. He didn't hear anything, which on some level he thought was strange. Taking a quick inventory of his body, he realized he was sitting in a wooden chair with his arms and legs restrained to it.

As memories of Slade returned full force, his eyes shot open to find the concerned eyes of his mother and sister upon him from either side of him. Moira's face was drawn and pale, Thea's eyes were reddened and bloodshot. They were also restrained in chairs. Before his mind could react to the horrifying discovery of his mother there, his eyes followed the low chuckle which came from the man in front of him, standing next to Felicity, also tied to a chair. Oliver let out an involuntary gasp as his eyes met hers. Her face white, making her wide eyes even brighter, Felicity was clearly attempting to keep her fear and anger under control. Her small hands were gripping the arms of her chair with whitened knuckles, making Oliver worry for the state of her chair. He hoped she could keep her Mirakuru-influenced emotions under control until it benefited them. Gathering his composure, Oliver forced a blank expression on his face as he turned his gaze towards Slade.

Before he could speak, however, Slade broke the silence. "I told the women in your life to remain quiet as you woke up. I thought you needed all the rest you could while you had the chance."

Lips curling up in disgust, Oliver recognized the lie in that statement. Slade knew a spy's first rule when captured was to listen to the sounds around them before opening their eyes. Struggling against the bonds, testing their strength, Oliver said, "Very funny, Slade." As his eyes again met Felicity's, he felt his anger threaten to boil over. "What are they doing here? I thought you were going to let Thea go when I arrived? Not to mention my mother and Felicity aren't even supposed to be here at all."

"Oh, but Oliver. I decided since I enjoyed the game with the Lances so much, we'll reenact it for you using your mother and sister."

Oliver closed his eyes and concentrated on keeping his breathing steady, attempting to control his fear. _I should've known from the moment I saw Mom and Thea he's going to make us relive my choice with Sara and Shado. Again._ He opened them, meeting Slade's gaze headlong. In a steady but even voice, Oliver said, "You don't have to do this, Slade. Just kill _me_. Let my friend and family go. I'll suffer from knowing you made them watch me die."

"A very good suggestion, Oliver. An excellent alternative." Slade got into Oliver's face. "But I like my original idea better." He walked a few steps away from Oliver, returning to his original position in between the two women. Making a grand show of it, he opened his jacket, took out a revolver out of the side pocket, and removed the safety.

Maintaining eye contact with Oliver, Slade walked towards Thea and pointed the gun at her head. "Who will it be, Oliver? Your darling little sister?" Oliver watched as Thea's eyes involuntarily closed and her shoulders tense up as if she expected the gun to go off immediately. She opened them again to meet Oliver's gaze, tears in her eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief when Slade lowered the gun to his side, removing it from her head. Slade then took several steps towards Moira and pointed the gun at her head. "Or your own sweet mother?" As Thea cried out "No!" Moira met her son's gaze headlong and shook her head slightly.

Before he could find his voice, his mother asked angrily, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Mr. Wilson?"

Slade leaned back on his heels fixing upon Moira a calculated stare. "I'd have thought your son would've told you?" Putting on an act of waiting for an answer, he continued. "Of course, he didn't." Slade bent down beside Moira. "Your son had to make a similar choice on the island. An evil man had captured him, my love Shado, and Oliver's girlfriend Sara. He then made Oliver choose who he was going to kill." He stood up and glared at Oliver. "How dare you choose that bitch Sara over Shado? Shado was worth a million of her."

"As I've tried to tell you, you psychopath! It really wasn't any choice. I told Ivo, no I _begged_ him to shoot me. Ivo instead pointed the gun at Sara and I thought he was going to shoot _her_. I meant to get in the way of the bullet, so I leaped in front of Sara. Ivo then turned the gun onto Shado and immediately shot her before I could stop him."

Slade rose and Oliver found him quickly in his face again. "If it were that simple, why didn't you tell me that right away? Why did you and Sara lie to me that night?" Slade pulled away, his eyes wandering off into the distance as he thought a moment. "It was Sara who first spoke the lie."

"Yes, it was."

"But you didn't refute it. Why?"

"I was afraid you would react without thinking, not understanding what we told you. Because of the Mirakuru."

"Oh, that it wasn't your fault that Shado died?"

"Exactly."

"But it _was_!" Slade screamed into Oliver's face. "It was your fault Sara was there in the first place." Walking towards Moira, he pointed the gun at her temple. "Should I shoot your mother, Oliver? Hurry, you need to choose."

"Mr. Wilson, my son will not choose," Moira sat straighter in her chair and glared at the mad man. "There _is_ only one way this will end. We both know that, don't we, Mr. Wilson?" Sitting even straighter, thrusting her chin out, she said as she stared into Slade's eyes, "Both my children will live."

Oliver came out of his stupor, realizing what his mother was saying, and screamed, "No, Mom!" as Thea screamed, "Mom, what are you doing?" Oliver rocked his chair back and forth, trying to get his bonds loose. His face red with anger, he cried out, "You hear me, Slade! No way are you touching either one of them. Kill me instead. I beg you!"

Slade shrugged. "You beg nicely, Oliver, I have to admit. However, in this case, I must say no. And since your mother has volunteered…." as he raised the gun towards Moira.

"Thea, I love you. Close your eyes, baby!" Moira screamed as the gun once again pointed at her temple and she waited for the bullet to hit.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Felicity watched silently in horror as the entire episode played out in front of her eyes. If Oliver had indeed lived through something like this on the island, no wonder he felt damaged beyond repair. No wonder he was reluctant to share everything which happened to him while he was gone, if this was truly an example of it.

For Slade to even think about doing something like this, to kill in front of her children the mother of a barely out-of-her-teens young woman and a man who had suffered enough…it was truly, truly evil. Thinking the island had created such evil, helped Felicity realize the depth of suffering Oliver had survived through.

Luckily for the Queens, Felicity had a back-up plan. With everything else on his mind, Slade hadn't stopped to truly question whether she still had the Mirakuru within her. Because Slade kept walking back and forth in front of her, he didn't notice her loosening her bonds and breaking free from the handcuffs after repeated tries. As he was about to shoot Moira in the head, Felicity knew she had to make her move. With one yank, she was free of the chair and tackled Slade from behind, taking him by surprise as he was raising the gun to his chosen victim's head.

As he was falling, Slade's arm holding the gun was jostled towards the ceiling, and the gun harmlessly went off into the air. Felicity took the opportunity while sitting on his back to begin to pound her fists into Slade's lower back, kidneys and head. Even though he was stunned, Slade reacted instinctively, trying to roll Felicity off of him.

Felicity jumped out of the way before he could grab her, landing on her feet. She aimed a roundhouse kick at his upper chest, successfully sending him flying backwards several feet. A growl came out of Slade as he got back on his feet which, at any other time, would have scared Felicity, but now only made her more determined to take him down.

"You think you are able to take me, little girl?" Slade growled in a most menacing tone.

Felicity balanced her weight from one foot to another, her eyes on her opponent. "I did once before."

"But that was only because I made the mistake of underestimating you. I wouldn't make the same mistake now," Slade said, as he threw several punches at Felicity's head. Felicity dodged the first punch, but the latter one caught her just right, sending her spiraling backwards.

Regaining her balance and staying upright, Felicity shook her head to clear away the dizziness. She continued to bounce on her toes like a professional boxer, trying to weave and dodge the punches Slade continued to throw at her. After clearing her head Felicity began her onslaught of punches and kicks, trying to gain the advantage. Her aim clear, she wanted to take Slade down this time without fail.

As the Queens watched the incredible fight taking place in front of them, Oliver had taken the split second to ensure his mother was all right. He then focused all of his strength in breaking the bonds holding him. Also unknown to Slade, he had missed one especially well-hidden flechette in a secret pocket of his sleeve. With his hands bound behind him, Oliver had been able to slide the flechette out of its hiding place and begin sawing at the ropes holding him during his conversation with Slade. When Felicity made her move, Oliver was almost free of his bonds.

With one final expulsion of energy, Oliver broke the remaining fibers holding his bonds together, then bent down quickly and cut through the rope binding his ankles together. He knew the location of his bow and quiver for, upon waking up, he had located them discarded in the corner by the door. He sprinted across the room to them, grabbed them and rushed back to the fighters. Getting the bow into position, he nocked an arrow and aimed it at Slade, whose back was to Oliver.

"Oliver, do you really think I'd leave dangerous arrows lying around for you to use?" Slade said in between punches and kicks. "I removed the antidote arrows after I tied you up." Despite the quick healing factor, Slade's face had several bruises and his nose was bleeding from Felicity's punches.

"That's why I disguised several of them as ordinary arrows." Oliver allowed Felicity to distract Slade with several well-placed kicks, knocking Slade to the ground once more before letting several arrows fly towards him. "So you'd consider them harmless."

Slade laughed as he pulled the arrows out of his chest, thinking they had no effect on him, when suddenly he collapsed after several more arrows found their way into his chest and abdomen. As he lost consciousness, he realized Oliver had conned him into receiving the Mirakuru cure via "harmless" arrows.

Sara and Dig suddenly were entering the room, dragging an unconscious Isabel with them. Felicity walked up to them, and before either of her teammates knew what was happening, Felicity punched Isabel in the jaw so hard Diggle barely could hang onto the unconscious woman.

"Whoa, Felicity! Why'd you do that?" Sara asked, bestowing on Felicity a smile of pride despite being surprised.

"I wanted to get in one good punch for all the flak she has given me over the past year."

Dig exchanged looks with Oliver, who simply cocked an eyebrow at his friend and smiled. Dig shrugged, and with a signal to Sara, laid Isabel on the ground.

"Sure, I'd have preferred her awake so she could feel it, but I'll take what I can get," Felicity said, unexpectantly looking somewhat timid. A blush then began up her cheeks. "Also, I knew I wouldn't have this strength for very much longer."

"What happened to you two anyway?" Oliver asked.

Diggle nodded towards Isabel. "Her. She came flying at us just when we were about to join you. It took us a while to bring her down."

"Even with the antidote arrows," Sara added.

Moira, after watching everything in silence, cleared her throat. "I hope you'll be able to explain this to me some time soon, Oliver."

Diggle enjoyed watching his friend squirm in front of his mother.

"Yes, Mom, both you and Thea are owed complete explanations for everything."

"Everything?" Dig and Felicity asked simultaneously.

Oliver nodded. "It's about time, don't you think?"

 **AN: Did you enjoy this chapter? I sure hope so. I hope the action reads all right. I like to think I'm getting better at writing that.**

 **[And for any Lois and Clark fans out there, just to let you know, when Slade tells Oliver he "begged nicely" I thought of the scene with Clark and Lex during the clone Lois arc when he was threatening Clark and the clone with the super-ray gun thingamajig (quantum disruptor, I believe they called it). Did any of you think of that scene? Just wondering. Probably not. I LOVE that LnC scene!]**

 **And did you like Felicity having another opportunity to fight Slade? I thought that was the least I could do, for her, to have the chance to get back at him for making her and her friends' lives miserable. It's probably too short, but again, I'm still learning how to write fight scenes.**

 **What do you think about me** ** _not_** **ending this with a cliffhanger? In my first draft of the last three chapters, the chapter ended perfectly as Slade aimed the gun at Moira. Unfortunately, I added and changed, and edited, and the chapters got too large. Ha. Oh well. Maybe you appreciate not having a cliffie for once in this story.**

 **This brings to an end of a huge chunk of story I had written it months ago. So, now again I have to create some more story. Which I don't know how long it will take me.**

 **I got one more question, for the longest AN I believe in my history. Did I give it away about Felicity saving the day? Or did it read okay? I hope that the action flowed well. Like I've said, I still feel like a novice with writing action and fight scenes. (That's probably because I am.)**

 **Anyhoo, thanks again for reading, and hopefully enjoying. If you be so kind, let me know what you think. Always makes my day. And see you the next chapter, for the "clean-up". And Moira finding out the truth, oh boy!**


	23. Chapter 23: An Overdue Conversation

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN:** **I am so very happy that the last chapter was so well-received, and that you all enjoyed Felicity being able to beat up on Slade. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well. I also want to thank those reviewers without accounts, including** **Supes Fan and D** **, for also writing reviews.**

Previously:

 _Moira, after watching everything in silence, cleared her throat. "I hope you'll be able to explain this to me some time soon, Oliver."_

 _Diggle enjoyed watching his friend squirm in front of his mother._

 _"_ _Yes, Mom, both you and Thea are owed complete explanations for everything."_

 _"_ _Everything?" Dig and Felicity asked simultaneously._

 _Oliver nodded. "It's about time, don't you think?"_

Even though there had been a problem before, Oliver decided to call ARGUS once again for them to collect Slade and Isabel. He decided to wait for Lyla and Amanda himself, with Sara providing backup. Nothing was going to allow Slade to escape this time. Meanwhile, he suggested Digg accompany Moira, Thea and Felicity to the mansion.

His mother and Thea voiced their objections to this, wanting instead to stay with him. Oliver swallowed his irritation and overrode their objections by telling them, "Mom, Thea, I know you have questions. But I think it would serve you better to go home, get washed up, get something to eat, and by then I should be home. We'll have a long over-due talk then."

The women left with Dig while Oliver and Sara checked the bonds binding their prisoners. Both Slade and Isabel continued to remain unconscious, which was perfectly fine with Oliver. He was in no mood to handle any attitude they might have given him, given his intention to hand them over alive. It would not take much to push him over the edge, encouraging him to break his vow to not kill.

"If you brood any harder, you're going to grind your teeth off your jaws," Sara teased.

All she got was a grunt while Oliver sat staring into space.

"What is wrong, Ollie?"

"I simply want to turn Slade and Isabel over, and be done with all of this."

"We will, and Dad just texted me a while ago. They picked up Blood on many charges, including conspiracy. So, it looks like we've collected everyone."

All Sara got in answer was another grunt. She shook her head at her friend and remained silent.

Upon their arrival, Lyla nodded in understanding of Oliver's overzealous checking of the restraints which the ARGUS agents placed on the prisoners, and the transport ARGUS had brought. Amanda, on the other hand, gave Oliver an especially difficult time about his nitpicking regarding the transport of the prisoners. Sara watched as Oliver only gritted his teeth and continued his actions, refusing to rise to Amanda's bait.

After ARGUS left with their prisoners safely secured, Sara asked the stoic man beside her, "What's your history with that woman anyway?"

"Why do you ask that?"

Sara simply stared at him in silence, waiting patiently for his response. Oliver shrugged and said, "I'll explain later. Now I have to tell my family about Slade." They walked in silence to their bikes.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

Meanwhile, upon their return to the mansion, the women separated to their individual bedrooms. However, Moira did first instruct Raisa to put together sandwiches, fruit, and juices and to bring them to the living room. She then instructed Diggle to make himself comfortable while waiting for everyone in the living room. Meanwhile Thea went to her room to call the hospital to check on Roy.

As she entered her guest room, Felicity breathed a sigh of relief and allowed herself to fall backwards onto the bed. Their ordeal was finally over. She had complete trust and faith that Oliver was going to ensure Slade was behind bars for good this time. There were still questions to be answered. And issues to be addressed. Especially for her. But also between her and Oliver.

Of course, she wouldn't be able to share in group therapy the exultation she felt when she was able to get in a few especially good punches at Slade. Even though it wasn't realistic, due to her lack of fighting experience, she still wished she could've beat him to death herself. Shaking herself, Felicity knew that it wouldn't have done her good in the long run. Hearing Oliver tell of his experiences with killing over the years had convinced her that killing out of revenge was never healthy in the long run. But a part of her still regretted not being able to kill Slade. A smile crossed her face as she reminded herself she did draw enough blood from him in their fight. 'Little girl', indeed. She showed him, all right.

Felicity debated whether she'd have time for a quick shower. Deciding she was simply too tired, she washed herself up in the sink, getting the surface grime off. She carefully washed her face, marveling that the bruises and cut she had received from Slade were now healed. Hopefully she will be able to take a quick shower before bed. From what she knew about the Queen women, the upcoming discussion will most certainly be eye-opening and explosive. So much as to revive her from the fatigue she was currently feeling, she was sure.

Her mind wandered back to her own questions. One such question was whether she should take the cure. There hadn't been a doubt in her mind, before today, that she would take it after Slade was captured. However, after experiencing more satisfaction with taking down Slade than she ever had from computer coding, she wondered what the harm could be. Couldn't her city benefit from a super strong vigilante?

The other issue facing her is the possible relationship with Oliver. Could she be with him even with the memory of Slade and his violation of her possibly always in between them? Did Oliver look at her differently now? After knowing him for two years, she knew he didn't consider women to be "fallen" if attacked. However, the fear remained within her that Oliver may be a little chauvinistic regarding the women he himself dated and held that belief despite himself.

Time would tell. She shelved the questions for now due to being called downstairs. Sara and Oliver must have arrived. Luckily, she was ready to face the discussion ahead.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

When Felicity entered the Queen sitting room, she found everyone else already seated. She quickly walked over to Oliver, who had patted the empty seat beside him on the sofa. She slid next to him, then looked anxiously at Mrs. Queen, who was sitting in an armchair on the other side of Oliver. Across from Felicity and Oliver, Diggle and Sara sat on the other sofa, with Thea to Sara's left in an armchair. They all held plates and were eating the food which Raisa had prepared for them. Felicity grabbed a sandwich and a glass of water and sat back on the sofa.

"Well, Oliver, now that we all are here, and unable to sleep, tell us what this has been all about?" Moira asked her son.

Oliver studied his mother. Too much had been revealed to her to attempt to hide anything from her now. Since the Undertaking, he looked at her with new eyes, wondering what other lies his mother had that were left for them to discover. However, now wasn't the time to wonder about such things. He had to take a chance and trust his mother and sister to be careful with his greatest secret.

His gaze then moved to include everyone else in the room. Thea, waiting expectantly, while his team gave him looks of encouragement. Oliver's eyes fell last on Felicity, who looked beautiful despite her fight to the death with a powerful villain. He marveled that her cuts and bruises had already healed. She gave him a bright smile, nodding, her eyes shining with trust. He gave her a small nod and began his story.

"Mom, Thea, Slade was with me on the island."

"Yes, Thea told me what Slade had said, about you killing the woman he loved? How's that possible, Oliver?" his mother asked.

"It wasn't his fault, Moira." His mother jumped at the sound of Sara's voice. "A criminal named Ivo had me and Shado tied up in front of them, and he was trying to make Oliver choose which of us Ivo should kill. Oliver told Ivo to shoot him instead. However, when Ivo pointed the gun at me, Oliver jumped in front of me. But Ivo quickly aimed the gun at Shado and shot her instead." Looking at Oliver, drilling her eyes into him, she said, "It was _never_ Oliver's fault Shado died."

"I meant for him to shoot me instead, the bastard," Oliver said.

"I, for one, am glad he didn't, but I do feel for this young woman named Shado." Moira said. "That explains the little incident Slade staged at the warehouse with Thea and me."

Oliver glared at his mother, "About that…."

Moira shrugged. "What else could I do, Oliver? I couldn't let that bastard kill my baby girl."

"And both Mom and I wonder how your executive assistant could have the strength to break handcuffs and beat up a criminal supposedly 'roided up," Thea interjected.

Felicity swallowed noisily as everyone's eyes flew to her. Sara and Roy smirked as Oliver cleared his own throat. "Mom, some things are going to be rather difficult for you to believe, but…."

"Is that why you haven't told us the truth since your return?"

"Partially. But I am ready now to try to be truthful to both of you from now on. Even though it may be dangerous for you." Through clenched teeth he added, "And difficult for you to believe."

"What do you mean?"

As Thea opened her mouth to answer their mother, Oliver caught her eye. "Thea, please allow me to tell Mom. Slade must have told you?"

Thea nodded and Oliver continued as Moira looked at her children questioning what they were talking about. "Mother, I am the Arrow."

Moira sat back in her chair and nodded. "I'm glad you finally told me. I've gotten tired of pretending not knowing."

Both of her children exclaimed, "What!"

"Yes, Oliver, I've known. Since the night of the Undertaking. Do you really think I wouldn't know what you were doing? Especially with that last talk we had before the quake? I kept quiet because I thought you'd be in more danger, be less cautious, if I knew and you weren't ready to tell me."

Oliver was at a loss for words. His mother knew for the past eight months about his nightly activities and hid that knowledge from him. He was about to ask her what she thought of it all when she interrupted him.

Reaching out and taking his hand in hers, she said, "I have never been as proud of you as I have the past eight months. And yet so scared."

"Thank you, Mom. I'm sorry you've been scared, but you really don't need to be."

Diggle coughed and Felicity hurriedly took a sip of her water. Oliver glared at his teammates. Felicity spoke up, her mind to mouth filter not working, "You know how you are, Oliver, always leaping without looking. And worrying us always practically to death. Even if you think you aren't like that. You are. There could be one day, God forbid, you don't get out of a mess. Oh, I suppose I shouldn't have said that before your mother and sister. I will now be quiet, counting 3,2,1…."

Moira leaned over and grasped Felicity's hand. "I seem to think my son has become more cautious because of your influence, Ms. Smoak. So, I would like to thank you," and turning to look up at Digg, "and you, Mr. Diggle." Catching Sara looking at her, Moira smiled. "Of course, thank you, Sara, as well."

"Enough of all this," Thea said impatiently. "I want to know how tiny Felicity was able to kick Slade's butt!"

"Thea!" her mother rebuked her.

"Sorry, Mom." Looking at Felicity, she caught the other woman's eyes, outside her mother's gaze, and rolled her eyes. Felicity looked down to cover a smile. "Please tell us, Felicity, how you were able to do it."

Turning towards Oliver, Felicity asked, "Do you want to tell them, or shall I?"

Oliver shrugged and proceeded to tell his mother and sister about how Mirakuru was created, what it did, and how Slade had been injected with it. He then went on to tell how Roy and Felicity had also been injected with the serum.

"Simply incredible," Moira said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Yeah," Thea took everyone by surprise with her sarcastic tone. "I don't understand why you had Roy lie to me. My very own boyfriend. Not to mention why you lied to us, Oliver. Why you kept the fact you were the Arrow away from us."

"It was for your own safety."

Extending her arms in front of her, palms up, Thea asked "And in what way were Mom and I kept safe today?"

Oliver let out a deep sigh in aggravation. "It worked very well until a man with a personal grudge came after me."

Moira slid to the edge of her seat in preparation to standing up. "Well, I do believe that is all Thea and I can handle for one night. Or is there something else we should know before we go to bed?"

"I can think of one question I want an answer to. When did you and Felicity start dating?" Thea asked her older brother.

Thea smirked as she watched her brother choke on his own saliva and Felicity turn redder than a radish. Thea sat back in her chair in triumph, waiting for their answer, alternating her gaze between her brother and the woman she hoped would become her sister-in-law someday.

 **AN: Is that much of a cliffhanger? We are nearing the end of this story. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I hope it was entertaining, the updating of the Queen family. I would really appreciate it if you'd tell me what you liked about it, what worked and what didn't. Always helpful.**


	24. Chapter 24: Felicity and Oliver Admit It

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: So very sorry for the length of time it took to get this chapter out. I started taking college classes again, so it's been hectic. Here's the next chapter; hope you enjoy. Now that Slade has been captured, Olicity can get down to business of becoming a couple. Or we'd like to think so, at least.**

 **Note of warning: Near the middle of this chapter, Felicity will have a nightmare/flashback. Please skip this section, written in italics, if this is a trigger for you. Thank you.**

Previously:

 _Moira slid to the edge of her seat in preparation to standing up. "Well, I do believe that is all Thea and I can handle for one night. Or is there something else we should know before we go to bed?"_

 _"_ _Like when did you and Felicity start dating?" Thea asked her older brother._

"Thea!" reprimanded her mother again as Felicity's face turned red, and Oliver began to choke on his water.

"We...uh, we are not dating…not exactly…it has only been recently…um, well, maybe I should let Oliver explain," Felicity stopped herself abruptly to prevent further babbling.

"Thea, we'll talk about this at another time. Felicity needs to get her rest. It's been quite the day for her," was Oliver's reply.

His sister gave him her patented look of looking down her nose at him. "Uh-uh, big brother. We're not letting you off that easy."

Oliver cleared his throat, a slight flush coloring his cheekbones. "Well, this situation has helped me realize my feelings for Felicity. Which we will explore, she and I, once Felicity feels up to it, taking into consideration the trauma Slade had put her through." He threw a sofa cushion at his bratty sister, which Thea caught. Oliver wrinkled his nose at her and said, "We'll let you know then, if that's all right with you, Speedy."

Thea clapped her hands together, a huge smile on her face. "I knew it! I could tell, the first time I saw the two of you together." Leaning towards Felicity, Thea said, "I promise I wouldn't begin planning the wedding tonight." Just as Felicity relaxed, she added with an even larger smile, "At least not before tomorrow."

Felicity's face turned even more red as Oliver yelled Thea's name again.

"Now, with that, young lady, we _are_ going to retire for the night." Felicity felt that if Moira hadn't been so proper, she would've pulled Thea out of the room by her ear. "The rest of you should again find everything you need in your rooms. However, if you need something, press the button for housekeeping next to the light switch by the door," Moira said as she stood up. She and Thea left with a chorus of "Good nights," following them.

Oliver watched them leave the room. He turned back to his friends, looking at each one in turn, and said, "Well, we did it, guys."

"Thank God!" Felicity said.

"I'd like to say again how sorry I am that you all were involved in this…." Oliver began.

"Oliver!" a chorus of protests and eyerolls followed his statement.

"One of these times, you'll stop saying that, Oliver, and know we're here for you by our own choice. If we didn't agree to the possible dangers, we wouldn't be here," Diggle said.

"I know. I _am_ trying to release needless guilt." Oliver said. Looking at Felicity, he added, "Hopefully with the help of this beautiful woman, I will improve." He brought her hand to his mouth and gently placed a kiss on the back of it.

"I think she's already helped you an amazing amount," Dig said, causing Felicity's blush to deepen.

"Enough of embarrassing Felicity for the night," Felicity said, rising. "I got to get to bed and get some sleep as well."

"I guess it's a good idea to postpone the discussion of everything until tomorrow," Oliver said. "May I walk you to your room, Ms. Smoak?"

"You may, Mr. Queen," Felicity said as she nodded her head at him. She also caught the looks the rest of the team exchanged. She rolled her eyes at them as she took the arm Oliver offered.

They remained silent until they reached Felicity's room. Turning to her, Oliver took both her small hands in his larger ones and took a breath. Felicity waited for him to speak.

After a moment, they both said the others' name at the same time. Oliver laughed, and said, "You go first."

"I guess we have lots to discuss, now that Slade's been dealt with."

"Whenever you're ready, Felicity. I've told you I'll wait for you."

"Thank you, Oliver. I appreciate it."

"You're worth waiting for." Oliver shook his head. "I know that sounds cheesy, but I mean it. It took me long enough to realize it." Leaning in slowly, watching her reaction, he kissed her on the cheek. "We'll talk tomorrow. Good night, Felicity."

Felicity nodded as she gave him a small smile. She entered her room, shut the door, and leaned against it. Suddenly everything from the past weeks weighed on her, making her too tired to move. Realizing her pajamas were waiting for her in the bathroom, Felicity resigned herself that the quicker she got ready for bed, the quicker she could climb into bed.

Only after she had climbed into bed did she allow herself to think about what the defeat of Slade meant for her and Oliver. A slow smile crossed her face as she contemplated pinching herself. It seemed unbelievable that he felt the same way about her that she did about him. And the way he had been looking at her all evening, with the softest smiles and the love in his eyes…it made her feel weak. Who would've thought she, a lowly IT girl, could win the heart of Starling's reformed playboy? But then, who would've thought that hidden behind a stony exterior was a heart full of such warmth and love. Of course, she suspected it, she supposed, since the moment he had walked into her office carrying a bullet-filled computer. With such thoughts, Felicity fell into a dreamless sleep.

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

 **Beginning of Nightmare/Flashback:**

 _She was handcuffed to the headboard of her bed, and her legs were tied to the footboard. There was no way she could get free, despite her efforts of pulling at the ropes. Suddenly she heard footsteps and turned, seeing the tall, broad figure of a man walking towards her, wearing a black and orange mask. He takes the mask off slowly, revealing himself to be Slade Wilson, Oliver's greatest enemy, and gives her a huge smile as his gaze takes her in from head to toe. She then realizes she's wearing only her underwear and is now a helpless captive._

 _"_ _You, Felicity, look so delicious. Oliver will be so sorry he didn't taste your fruits first."_

 _She attempted to struggle as Slade covered her body with his much larger one, but he was too strong and she was restrained. He forced his lips on hers as he tore off her bra, and suddenly his cock found entrance into her before she could scream. Felicity flung her head back and forth, trying to find an escape from Slade's bruising kisses, but her efforts were in vain as the pain from his forceful entrance rolled over her._

 _As Slade repeatedly thrust into her, pain cut through her, making Felicity feel she was being cut in half. When she felt she could no longer bear it, he pulled himself out of her, wiping his cock on her upper thigh before rising from the bed._

 _"_ _I am sorry you got in the middle of all this, but it was something I had to do to bring the Kid down. I hope you can understand."_

 _She began to scream as Slade walked out of the room. She screamed and screamed until strong hands were grasping her shoulders, shaking her._

 **End of Nightmare/Flashback**

"Felicity, Felicity! Wake up, honey! It's only a dream; you're having a nightmare!"

Felicity sat straight up in bed, attempting to throw Oliver's hands off her. However, Oliver maintained his grip until Felicity opened her eyes and realized Oliver was there.

She threw herself into Oliver's arms. "It was terrible, Oliver. I was there again, with Slade raping me. he was raping me, Oliver, and I couldn't do anything to stop it!"

Oliver held her gently in his arms, rocking her back and forth, rubbing circles on her back. Felicity cried uncontrollably for five minutes before she stopped in exhaustion. She attempted to bring her breathing under control.

Pulling himself out of her grasp slowly, Oliver lifted her head so she could look into his eyes. "Do you feel better?" Oliver asked her gently.

Felicity breathed out a sigh and fell back into her pillows against her headboard. "I just don't know, Oliver. It was just so real."

"That's what happens with flashbacks," Oliver said in a quiet voice. "It's normal. I'm so very sorry you're experiencing them for yourself."

Swallowing hard to clear her throat, Felicity said softly, "I was warned about them, that sometimes it helps the healing, bringing up memories." Pausing, she swallowed. "At least, that's what they say." Squaring her shoulders, Felicity looked him straight in the eyes and asked, "Have you found that to be true in your case, Oliver?"

Oliver smiled sheepishly. "I might not be the best example of how to recover from trauma, Felicity."

Felicity gave a little smile as she patted his upper arm. "You're getting better, Oliver."

She gave a little laugh when Oliver raised his eyebrows expressing his skepticism. Oliver shrugged, saying, "It probably goes without saying but I have yet to figure it out for myself." The light-hearted expression left Oliver's eyes. "You need to go to a meeting tomorrow and deal with the issues remaining with this entire Slade episode." He paused, taking a swallow. "And…perhaps…we should stop this relationship before it begins."

Oliver watched as a burst of anger appeared in Felicity's eyes. She stood up and faced him. "You did _not_ just say that." Oliver's head sagged, but Felicity raised it so he could look her in the eye this time. "I continually tell you, this is _my_ life, _my_ choice, and I know fully well what I have gotten into. Ever since the Dodger, _remember_?" Felicity sighed, shook her head and said in a softer voice, "You keep forgetting, nothing really changes whether we're together or not. I'm still in danger whether we are together or not. Not only because of Arrow business, but simply by working at Queen Consolidated." Felicity held up a finger and put it in Oliver's face. "And if you fire me from there, and prevent me from working on Team Arrow, people will still know we know each together."

Oliver shook his head. "You are one stubborn woman, aren't you?"

Felicity gave him a sparkling smile. "No, what I am is smart. And persistent. And I _don't_ give in."

Oliver stood up and placed a kiss on her forehead. "You get into bed and get some more rest. And hopefully you can get up and go to the group meetings tomorrow."

Felicity smiled mischievously. "Yes, Sir," saluting him smartly.

Oliver simply shook his head, rose from the bed and said, "I'll see you in the morning."

Felicity watched him leave, wanting to call him back and ask him to stay with her. However, she knew it wasn't the right thing to do. Not yet. But she was determined for it to be soon.

 **AN: I sure hope this chapter was worth the wait. Again, I sincerely apologize for the long wait. My classes will be done by the first week of March, so I plan to be able to write more. I hope you will take pity on me and let me know what you thought of this chapter, as we move into the second phase of this story, Felicity healing and Olicity finally happening.**


	25. Chapter 25: The Beginning of Healing

Disclaimer: WB/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this.

 **AN: It seems like all I do is apologize to you all. Sigh. I am trying to be good and finish my unfinished stories, as well as finish a story, before I post a new story. Ha. Needless to say, it's not working so well. I take comfort that I'm not the only author who does this, heehee. Anyway, without further talking, here is the next chapter. I do believe we are nearing the end of this story.**

 **Trigger warning: some discussion of a rape having occurred. No specific details however. A therapy session also in this chapter.**

"Felicity, Felicity dear. I hate to wake you, but I think you should go to group today."

At first, she reacted to the irritating noise by attempting to bat it away but that hand was gently clasped in a warmer one. Then a hand was gently on her shoulder, and Oliver's well-known voice reached through her warm cocoon of sleepiness and blankets to wake her up. His words then suddenly reminded her of her nightmare, and she sat straight up in bed.

Felicity saw Oliver's look of alarm through bleary eyes. "Felicity, I'm so sorry to have startled you, but it's time to wake up."

Felicity rubbed her face with both her hands, trying to orient herself more fully. She smiled at Oliver and quickly reassured him. "You didn't startle me; I remembered my nightmare, that's all, and that's what made me jump." Reaching for her phone Felicity looked first at the time then at any messages. None were there, so she turned her attention back to Oliver after noting the time was nine o'clock.

Smiling again, she said, "Thank you for waking me up. Yes, if I hurry, I can catch the midmorning sessions."

"I'll wait downstairs for you, then."

As his well-built form walked out of the room, Felicity took a moment to admire his marvelous butt. She then caught herself and forced herself to jump out of bed to begin her morning routine. Rushing through the shower, she applied her makeup quickly but expertly and brushed her damp hair into one of her signature ponytails. She rushed downstairs to grab breakfast only to find Oliver sitting in what the Queens called their 'breakfast room'.

"I waited for you while you got ready," Oliver said, giving her one of his  
"Felicity-only" smiles.

She felt guilty for making him wait. "You didn't have to do that," Felicity told him as she sat down next to him at the four-chaired fancy oak table.

"My pleasure. We're not in a rush, are we? If you miss the last of the morning sessions, you can get in the afternoon ones, right?"

Felicity smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, but I'd rather get in as much as I could."

Oliver nodded in understanding. "How'd you sleep after the nightmare?"

Giving him a wider smile, she said, "Good. Thanks for being with me."

Suddenly there was a tinge of red along his cheekbones. "Oh, sure. No problem."

Felicity thought about that redness. Usually the only thing that embarrassed Oliver was his sex life. No, she meant his dating life. She looked down and rolled her eyes at herself. Looking up, she observed Oliver looking at her in concern.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded. There were empty plates in front of both of them, and a table-full of food. "This all looks delicious. I suppose we should begin."

Oliver nodded, handing her a bowl of scrambled eggs. "Yes, I suppose."

~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~OQ~~FS~~

As she rode beside Oliver in his car, Felicity debated what she should say in therapy. Her feelings were, of course, all mixed up. She was glad it was all over, and that Slade was safely imprisoned. For sure this time. No subterfuge from any of his allies. Her lies and cover-ups have improved over the years working with Oliver, so she could very well come up with some inventive story to disguise the facts and make it all believable. Perhaps she could say it was a dream, and that it did give her some closure. Because, really, how could she talk about beating up a man who was twice her size? Or having a secret prison where he could be taken, to cover up that no rapists had been caught lately?

Once they'd arrived at the counseling center, Oliver gave her a smile. "Are you okay? Still want to do this today? You don't have to, you know."

Felicity smiled back at him. "I know. Thanks for saying that. I…I need to do this." Heaving a sigh, she opened the car door. "Shall we say you pick me up at 3pm, unless I call you earlier?"

Oliver nodded. "Sounds good." He took a breath as though he was about to say something else but changed his mind. Instead, he said, "Have a good day, Felicity."

"You too, Oliver."

Felicity walked towards the door but turned around before going in. As expected, Oliver hadn't left yet but was watching her. He gave a small wave, and she waved back with a smile. She entered secure in the fact Oliver was truly watching out for her, like he always had since the moment they met.

She had missed the morning group therapy session but luckily her therapist was available right away. Felicity followed her into her office and sat down. As she watched the other woman sit down, Felicity had qualms in her stomach but she decided to power through the uncertainty anyway. Like therapy said, sometimes a person has to "sit in the uncomfortable feeling" sometimes.

Instead of beginning right away, Felicity decided to wait for her therapist to begin. Dr. Smith began by asking her how she was. Felicity sat up and decided she wanted to be honest. And right to the point. Right away.

"I helped catch my rapist over the weekend."

Dr. Smith didn't bother to hide her astonishment and delight. "You did? How wonderful! How are you feeling about that?"

"Like I have part of me back." Felicity chewed on her lower lip. "Um, I also had a dream the night before that I was able, um, beat him up before we took him into custody."

Dr. Smith cocked an eyebrow at her. "Interesting. Are you usually a violent person?"

Alarmed, Felicity shook her head. "Usually not. However, this person, um, as I said in group over the past weeks, he's been tormenting me and my friends as well. So, it made me feel like I've gained back some of my agency by beating the snot out of him."

Dr. Smith's eyes widened slightly at Felicity's words. "I'm glad you feel that way, but I usually don't recommend feelings like that."

Felicity held up her hands in protest. "I agree. I usually don't like violence. Not me, ever. I hardly ever watch fights in movies. Except The Avengers. And Dr. Who, of course. But he had made me so very angry that I…I just had to do something. So, I guess I dreamed that up."

"You said before he was arrested?"

"Yes."

"Why, do you suppose, you dreamed that before he was arrested?"

Oh. Felicity didn't think about that. "I suppose I was apprehensive of what was going to happen, and it was one way to deal with my fear."

Dr. Smith nodded. Felicity suddenly uncomfortable with the silence but bit back the babble which was threatening to come out. Instead she said, "One good thing. Now that we have this taken care of, I can start a relationship with Oliver."

She quickly closed her eyes. Felicity hadn't wanted to say his name. Oh well, this is all confidential. "I've had a crush on him since we met two years ago. We met at work, then I…I've helped him on his charity projects after work. We've become great friends, and I never suspected it could be more, or that he could ever feel that way about me."

"Oh? Well, Felicity, I usually don't recommend -"

"Oh, I know. I'm not sure about when we will be, um, intimate, certainly not for a while. And he's been the most perfect gentleman about it." She blushed slightly. "He…he said he's been so afraid of losing me over this attack, or attacks, that he finally told me his feelings. But that he'd wait for me to be ready to start a relationship."

Felicity felt herself going into a full babble but she didn't care. "We've known each other for several years, like I said. We're best friends. And…we've been, or at least I've been, flirting with him over the years. Not that I've meant to, however. I, you know, how I tend to babble…."

"Yes, I've noticed that a time or two," the therapist agreed.

"But he's such an amazing guy! He truly is, but the sad thing about him is that he doesn't believe it. Here is this amazing, gifted, generous man who believes he's not worthy of love. No matter how privileged he was growing up, he feels guilty for wasting that, for being less than what he thought he should be. Even if he's made up for it a thousand-fold over the past years." Felicity stuttered, realizing she might have said too much. "By…by all the charity work he's done anonymously over the years, and the money he's donated as well."

"Indeed, he sounds quite wonderful. And the fact you've been friends before the rape, as well as delaying any intimacy, does help as well. But only when you're ready."

"Oh, I know. Because he's _so_ hot, I mean I've known attractive guys, and some have even flirted with me, but not like this guy. He has the deepest, bluest eyes I've ever seen, and the muscles. And the abs! Don't get me started on the abs of this man."

The therapist laughed. "Okay, we've established how attracted you are to him. And you're sure you're compatible in values and beliefs?"

"Oh yes, for I've helped him with his, um, charity work. We've had some arguments over the years about who to help, and how, but…we've mostly agreed." Felicity noticed she had moved to the edge of her seat and sat back in her chair, purposely relaxing her posture. "Yeah, and he'd never take advantage of me either."

"You said you've gained some agency back by dreaming you beat up your rapist."

"Yes, he made me…he made me feel like…powerless, or something. I hate feeling like that." Felicity looked down, tears now pooling in her eyes.

"When in your life have you felt that way?"

"The day my father left without saying why. Mom knew of course; she'd kicked him out because she found out he was a criminal. But she never told me that until recently. So…so I grew up thinking it was my fault he'd left."

"Why was that?" her therapist asked in an interested way, not a "counselor" way which would've made Felicity uncomfortable.

"I hadn't put my toys away the day before and he'd gotten a little angry with me. I…when he left I thought he'd left because of that." Felicity sniffled as she wiped the tears which kept falling even though she tried to stop them.

"Did you ever tell your mother about that?"

Felicity shook her head slowly and gave out a big sigh. "No. I don't know why, but I felt she didn't want to ever talk about it. See, she was busy with two jobs trying to provide both of us food and shelter. She never asked for help; she did it all on her own."

"She sounds like a pretty amazing woman herself."

Felicity's face lit up with a huge smile and the tears stopped. "Yes, yes she is. I mean, of course, as a teen I never thought of her like that. I was angry for Dad leaving, for us not having money, for…" Felicity's eyes began to tear up again. "I had my heart set on going to Space Camp one summer. I thought we could afford it. Of course, I didn't know how much it would cost or what type of money problems we were having." Felicity stopped to look down at her lap, wiping her tears. "When Mom told me I couldn't go, I didn't talk to her for two weeks." Felicity began playing with the hem of her shirt. "I never did apologize for that," she said softly, almost to herself.

"Your mom knows you didn't mean it."

Felicity shrugged. "I don't know. I was pretty mean to her off and on over the years. Even when at college. And when I got out. It's only been the last two years where we've gotten closer than we've ever been."

"That's natural, Felicity. And understandable. Teenage rebellion, trying to establish your own identity in college, are normal times for children to pull away from their parents. The important thing is that you've reestablished a relationship with her." The therapist gave her an unwavering look. "You do feel comfortable with that relationship, don't you?"

"Oh yes. Most definitely. Before I just tolerated her, but now…now I confide in her a lot more. We talk every week."

"You haven't said, but did you tell your mother about the rape?"

Felicity cleared her throat. "No. Not yet. Now that it's all over, I'll tell her. I didn't want her to worry, and I had my friends and coming here to support me, so…it was mainly because I wanted my rapist caught so he wouldn't harm anyone else ever again."

"Were you afraid he'd go after your mother?"

Felicity considered the question. "Well, not really. He could've, because he's that psycho. But since she lives out of town, it was pretty far out there that he would."

"Our session is almost over. Do you have anything else you need to bring up?"

Felicity thought and shook her head. In reflecting on how she was feeling, Felicity was surprised as to the degree of calmness she felt. It truly was like a weight had been lifted from her. "It's helped me to talk about this today." She smiled again. "And to brag about my dream."

"Interesting. It's almost as though it really happened."

Felicity was able to catch herself from looking at her therapist in alarm. However, she did take a breath before she answered. "It's weird, but I did feel like it could've been real. Even though I know it wasn't. I'm not hallucinating or anything like that. I'm okay that way." Felicity bit her lower lip to stop rambling. She rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, Dr. Smith, but you know my rambling."

Standing up, Dr. Smith held out her hand. "You've been doing excellent work here, Felicity, and I'm so proud of you. Congratulations on your rapist being caught. The next group session will start in thirty minutes. I hope you stick around for it."

Felicity couldn't look her therapist in the eye. Her gaze wandered around the room as she thought. Suddenly she was worn out. "I'm not sure. Of course, I think I should attend sessions at least a few more times, but…talking about it just now has tired me out."

"That is perfectly normal. I think you made a lot of progress in just this session. Do what you need for yourself. You have my number in case anything happens, if you leave. And if you wish to discharge, you can always return if something is triggered. You think it over and let us know."

Suddenly Felicity felt tears in her eyes again and wondered why she was being foolish. Deciding to think about it later, she nodded, and she rose to go to the waiting room.

 **AN: So there more talking than action in this. I hope her session with her therapist wasn't boring. I thought she covered a lot of what might hold her back from Oliver, even without her realizing it.**

 **Like I said, we are nearing the end. I do hope I am and will continue to address the rape recovery sensitively and realistically.**

 **Hope you were entertained by this chapter and leave me a comment or review so I know what you enjoyed about it. Or what had struck you. Always appreciated.**


	26. Chapter 26: Finally, A New Beginning

Disclaimer: CW/DC own these characters. I'm only borrowing them for a while. I own the original ideas found in this. Some dialogue from Episod "The Calm".

 **AN: Hello. I apologize for not being able to give you more warning, but this is the final chapter before the epilogue (one drawback about posting as you write). Thank you for returning and reading. I hope I did justice to the sensitive topic and its resolution. I went so far, then writer's block hit. So thank you for sticking with this story and here is the second to the last chapter.**

After her session with Dr. Smith, Felicity decided to stay for the afternoon group therapy sessions as well. Partly to solidify her realizations from the morning but also because it felt good to put into words what she felt about some of her unresolved childhood issues and how they'd been affecting her recovery from Slade's attacks. She didn't want to lose those realizations and instead wanted to build upon them.

Because of her therapist's reaction to her describing her "dream" about beating up Slade, Felicity began to question her decision about confiding to a non-ARGUS therapist. Felicity got the feeling her therapist actually considered for a moment whether she should report Felicity to the authorities as a threat to others. Because of that, it probably wasn't a bad idea to take Oliver's suggestion she meet with an ARGUS therapist instead. In that way she could discuss her feelings about the Mirakuru still in her system and other things about her experience without being dishonest about them. She wouldn't have to shroud it under the pretense of a dream. Besides, she wasn't even sure how she could broach such subjects in regular therapy without causing an uproar.

As per his insistence, Oliver picked her up at 4pm after the last session. The worry was apparent in his eyes and she knew he'd been worried about her all day. He got out of the car, kissed her cheek, and opened the car door for her. Neither spoke until they both were in the car.

"How'd it go? By the look on your face, attending group helped, I assume?"

"Yes, it did." Leaning over to grasp his hand, she smiled at him. "Thank you for your support throughout all of this."

Felicity watched as a slight blush highlighted his cheekbones. "It's the least I can do." He then rushed to add, "I mean, because I truly care for you, as a friend, besides being interested in building our relationship romantically." Looking at her, he asked, "If you still want to, that is?"

"Are you kidding me, Oliver? I've been wanting to jump your bones since the first time you entered my office with your banged-up computer." Felicity covered her mouth, her eyes wide. "Oh, frak, I didn't mean to say that out loud!"

Oliver laughed. "Well, if I were honest with myself, I was attracted to you as well from that first meeting. That's why I kept returning with my bad cover-up stories to ask for your help." He looked at the road and his expression grew serious. "I never told you, but you were the first person I saw as a person since returning from the island."

"What do you mean?"

"I'd grown to view people as targets, threats or a means to an end. Always on guard, never relaxed. And you made me smile honestly for the first time since I'd gotten back." He breathed a chuckle. "You don't know how much that meant to me."

Felicity looked out the windshield as well and thought about his words. The fact he felt that way touched her tremendously. She had always known Oliver Queen as more than just a superficial playboy or a closed, up-tight survivor. The man truly was a complicated, multi-layered individual, and she hoped she could spend a lifetime exploring all of him.

The silence, at first awkward, grew comfortable as they drove along. Suddenly Felicity realized they weren't heading to either her apartment or the Queen mansion. "Where are we going?"

"I know I should've asked, especially since you've had such a long day, but I wanted to take you out for supper. To celebrate."

Felicity lowered her head and looked at Oliver through her eyelashes. "Why, sir, what exactly are we celebrating?"

"I know I should say capturing Slade, but actually…." Oliver swallowed. "I wanted to celebrate us." After a pause he added, "I hope it's not too soon."

Of all those layers which made up Oliver, Felicity was surprised to find such a romantic side to him. Of course she knew and was very much familiar with the superficial charming side he often showed outsiders, but him being so earnest and sweet was new.

"That sounds…nice."

"Nice?" Felicity swore she saw a look of fear cross his face and as quickly was gone.

Felicity felt her face turning red. "When you say things like that, you're so romantic it catches me off-guard."

"Well, I guess I simply have to do it a lot more often so you get used to it then." A small smile, which Felicity took as relief, appeared on his face.

Felicity felt her face redden even further. She broke their gaze and looked down at her hands grasped tightly together in her lap. "Where are we going?"

"This little bistro I discovered the other day. It's fairly new, so it's not too busy. It's smaller so it feels less daunting than, say, Table Salt. Which I plan on taking you soon, but I thought you'd object without more advanced notice."

Looking down at her pretty, but unremarkable, pink blouse and gray pencil skirt, Felicity was happy Oliver understood women. At least most of the time, she added with a small smile.

"Thank you for understanding," she smiled.

Their eyes locked for a moment but Oliver, safety conscious as always, quickly returned his eyes back to the road. They sat in comfortable silence watching the scenery pass as it changed from the city streets to slower-paced neighborhoods.

Before she knew it, they reached the restaurant. Oliver, as always the gentleman, got out quickly to open the car door for her. He assisted her out of the car with a small smile on his face at the surprise on her own face. "What? I can be a gentleman, you know."

"Of course I knew that. I …I'm just not used to it that's all."

"Well, again, you better get used to it." Oliver's face suddenly turned pink and he quickly looked away as they reached the restaurant door. He held the door for her and she walked in as she looked around. It was a very nice little restaurant, Felicity thought. Perfect for a first date. Which this was, and wasn't, at the same time. Suddenly she became nervous once again, her breathing increased and she knew she trembled a little.

Oliver, walking arm in arm with her, stopped her. "What happened?" he asked quietly. "What are you thinking that made you nervous?"

Right then, the hostess approached them. "Let me tell you at the table," Felicity suggested, indicating the hostess with a nod of her head.

Oliver agreed and they were seated at a quiet table for two by one of the large bay windows at the far end of the restaurant. The tables were made of soft brown oak, the chairs comfortably upholstered. The window looked out on a little pond gracing the end of the property line of the restaurant.

After the hostess left them with two menus, Oliver looked at her expectantly. Felicity swallowed and said, "It's because this…well, this is like a first date, but not."

"What is there to be nervous about, Felicity?"

"Well, we've known each other for two and a half years. We've already exhausted every topic that one would normally talk about on a first date." She gulped. "And a second date and a third date." She sighed. "And every date, actually. And I've already seen you shirtless. Multiple times. Shirtless, all the time." She looked down, knowing her face was turning crimson, as she traced the pattern of the tablecloth with her finger.

"Felicity, it's all right. It's just me. You've nothing to be nervous about. I haven't been scared away yet, have I?"

That produced the desired effect of making her laugh. "I guess not. And you have said you liked my ramblings."

"I love them, actually." The admission was spoken softly, which was out of the ordinary for the gruff Arrow. Felicity wondered if her face would ever again return to its natural color. However, when Oliver reached across the table and squeezed her hand again, all her anxiety vanished.

They talked over what they were thinking about ordering, and then the conversation wandered effortlessly from topic to topic as they ate and enjoyed the wine Felicity had chosen. Contrary to Oliver's insistence, she didn't order the Laffite Rothschild. "Let's save that for a special occasion."

Oliver whispered to her, "Every moment I spend with you is a special occasion."

Felicity was speechless. She wasn't used to this more carefree and certainly more romantic Oliver. When she didn't make a comment, Oliver took her hand gently and squeezed it lightly. He then carefully lowered it back into her lap and continued their discussion about hometowns.

Their conversation was as effortless as it was in the foundry. Felicity didn't stop to think about it until later. How easily her one great romance began with a shot-up computer.

 **AN: I apologize for struggling with this last bit of the story. I hope this seems like a proper ending. I will add an epilogue. And perhaps a sequel, but that might be a while.**

 **Thank you for everyone who has read this to the end, who have commented or reviewed, or left a fav, follow, or kudo. It is truly appreciated. We readers hate to beg for reviews, but it really does help the Muse.**

 **I hope if you haven't already, please check out my other stories. I like to think I have stories to cover a wide variety of interests.**

 **Happy Holidays and a great New Year! Hope to see you again.**


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